U.S. releases food safety rules for imported food, produce farms

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday released what it called "groundbreaking" safety standards for imported food and produce farms as part of its efforts to prevent foodborne illness.

Under a rule called the Foreign Supplier Verification Programs, importers are now required to be accountable for verifying that imported food meets U.S. safety standards.

The FDA cited an official estimate that imported food accounted for about 19 percent of the U.S. food supply, including about 52 percent of the fresh fruits and 22 percent of the fresh vegetables consumed by Americans.

"The final rule ensures that importers conduct verification activities (such as audits of a supplier's facility, sampling and testing of food, or a review of the supplier's relevant food safety records) based on risks linked to the imported food and the performance of the foreign supplier," it said in a statement.

Another FDA rule known as the Accredited Third-Party Certification established a program for the accreditation of third-party certification bodies, also called auditors, to conduct food safety audits of foreign food facilities.

The FDA also finalized a rule on how produce should be grown, harvested, packed and held and imported. The rule does not apply to produce that is used for personal or on-farm consumption and farms that have sold less than 25,000 U.S. dollars in produce during the previous three years.

The standards in the Produce Safety rule included requirements for water quality, employee health and hygiene, biological soil amendments of animal origin such as compost and manure, and equipment, tools, and buildings.

The FDA said it has finalized five of the seven rules proposed to implement the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act, which directed the FDA and food producers to prevent problems across the entire food system, rather than waiting to act until illness occurs.

Earlier this year, the agency finalized two rules for food processing and storage facilities.

According to recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 48 million people, or one in six Americans, get sick each year from foodborne diseases. That leads to about 128,000 hospitalization and 3,000 deaths each year. Endit