In the 1990s, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) used proteins to identify seafood, but the profiling method could only match to a standard sample. They had to have frozen tissues from all of the species they wanted to compare and the agency did have a collection to work
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import safety
GAO: FDA Not Keeping Pace With FSMA Foreign Inspection Mandate
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) needs to do more to ensure that its foreign offices are keeping food imported to the U.S. safe, says a report released Friday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). In 2010, GAO studied FDA’s foreign offices and found that they engaged in a variety…
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Louisiana Senator’s Bill Seeks to Enhance the Safety of Imported Seafood
U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) introduced a bill this past week that would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to ensure the safety of imported seafood. According to the American Shrimp Processors Association (ASPA), which supports the bill, S. 190 increases inspection standards on foreign imported seafood, requires…
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FDA’s Taylor Visits China to Strengthen Food Safety Ties
Today, 15 percent of America’s food supply is imported from other countries, including 80 percent of seafood and 50 percent of fresh fruit. An increasing amount of that food is coming from China, a country with a food safety track record that leaves many American consumers uneasy. Part of the…
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FDA Warns CA Seafood Importer for Failure to Meet HACCP Regulation
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning letter to Jin Han International, Inc., stating that the company is importing fish without processing them in accordance with seafood Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulation. According to the letter, the Commerce, CA, company, which is doing business…
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FDA Moving Too Slowly to Promote Private Inspections
Congress told the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to require importers, beginning no later than July 2012, to verify the safety of each shipment entering the U.S. Those who relied upon independent private inspections (“3rd party certification”) were to be rewarded with expedited entry through customs. Independent inspections…
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How Did a Hepatitis A Virus Get Into Organic Berries?
The latest example of how even health-conscious eaters are not immune from foodborne illness outbreaks came last week with a recall of organic frozen berries contaminated with Hepatitis A. The products were sold under the brand name of Townsend Farms at two large chains: Costco stores in the West…
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FDA Releases Plan for Improving Safety of Imported Food
The federal Food and Drug Administration Thursday unveiled its plan for improving food safety in countries that export food to the United States. The document fulfills one of the mandates of the Food Safety Modernization Act, enacted by Congress in 2011, which calls on FDA to “develop a comprehensive plan…
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Catfish Industry Flounders Despite Congressional Support
Earlier this month Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran sent a letter to Rebecca Blank, the acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, asking that the Department “vigorously enforce the antidumping order against frozen fish fillets from Vietnam.” The fish Cochran is concerned about is catfish, and his concerns are not …
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FDA Names New Zealand First Food Safety System Comparable to US
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday signed a “systems recognition” agreement with New Zealand – the agency’s first formal acknowledgement that a foreign country has a food safety system comparable to the U.S.
In an interview with Food Safety News, Deputy Commissioner for Foods Michael Taylor touted…
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