Sunday, January 6, 2013

U.S. leads on produce safety

Once again, it's the United States that is pushing Canadians into adopting higher standards for food safety.


Canadian fruit and vegetable farmers will have to comply with new food safety rules if they want to export to the United States.
They will not only have to practice good food safety measures, but also keep records to document their compliance.
The tougher import rules are part of a package of food safety measures the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has unveiled two years after politicians passed a law to counter food poisoning.
It might be another two years before the new rules actually take effect because the government will be busy drafting detailed rules and offering stakeholders opportunities to comment before they decide what will actually be put into effect.
“We know one-size-fits-all rules won’t work,” said Michael R. Taylor, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine. “We’ve worked to develop proposed regulations that can be both effective and practical across today’s diverse food system.”

Some examples of what’s proposed are making sure workers' hands are washed, irrigation water is clean, and that animals stay out of fields. Food manufacturers will have to submit food safety plans to the government to show they are keeping their operations clean.
The FDA estimates the new rules could prevent almost 2 million illnesses a year.
About one person in six experiences food poisoning every year, 130,000 end up in hospital and about 3,000 die.

Taylor said it could take the agency another year to craft the rules after a four-month comment period, and farms would have at least two years to comply _ meaning the farm rules are at least three years away from taking effect. Smaller farms would have even longer to comply.

The produce rule would mark the first time the FDA has had real authority to regulate food on farms. In an effort to stave off protests from farmers, the farm rules are tailored to apply only to certain fruits and vegetables that pose the greatest risk, such as berries, melons, leafy greens and other foods that are usually eaten raw.
Vegetables grown for processing will not be regulated, nor will farms with sales of less than $500,000 a year. However, if an outbreak is traced to a farm, it will be liable under the rules.
Among the rules the FDA says will be coming soon are new responsibilities for importers to verify that food products grown or processed overseas are as safe as domestically-produced food and accreditation standards to strengthen the quality of third-party food safety audits overseas.
Improving oversight of imported food is an important goal, the government said.
Approximately 15 percent of the food consumed in the United States is imported, with much higher proportions in certain higher-risk categories, such as produce.
The FDA will also propose a preventive controls rule for animal food facilities, similar to the preventive controls rule proposed today for human food. That could also impact Canadian meat and poultry packers and farmers.