FDA issues new safety rules for imported food

• FDA proposes new rules that require food importers to meet the same safety standards as U.S. food producers
• Currently FDA has little oversight over importers beyond inspecting about 2%25 of food coming into the country
• The rules are part of the landmark Food Safety Modernization Act signed into law in 2011

Although one-sixth of America's food is imported, including 50% of the fresh fruit and 20% of the fresh vegetables, the Food and Drug Administration inspects only 2% of imports. That began to change Friday when the agency issued long-awaited rules that require imported food to meet the same safety standards as food produced in the United States.

Today "produce comes to our border without us having any enforceable standards in place for the conditions under which the produce was grown or for water quality and employee hygiene. And there's no way for us to hold the importer accountable for the safety of the product they're bringing in," said Michael Taylor,FDA's deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine.

Once the rules take effect, importers will be responsible for proving to FDA that the food they import was produced and packed under conditions that prevent food safety problems.

"Imported food is such an important part of our food system that you can't really have an effective food safety system at FDA without these new regulations," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C.

The proposed rules are part of the Food Safety Modernization Act, signed into law by President Obama in 2011. They will also create an auditing system to insure that foreign food producers and packers adhere to U.S. safety standards.

Imported food is responsible for a disproportionate number of food-borne illnesses. According to the food safety program at the Pew Charitable Trusts, eight of the 19 reported multi-state food-borne illness outbreaks linked to FDA-regulated products since 2011 were from imports. The foods included pomegranate seeds, tahini sesame paste, cucumbers, ricotta salata cheese, mangoes, raw tuna, pine nuts and papayas.

Imported foods that are eaten raw are especially dangerous because other nations often have endemic diseases unknown in the United States. "We're not only importing their food, we're also importing their health problems," DeWaal said.

The CDC is currently investigating an outbreak of cyclospora that has sickened 285 people in multiple states and sent 18 to the hospital. The stomach bug causes vomiting and diarrhea and is common in tropical regions. A 1999 outbreak that sickened over 1,400 people in the United States and Canada was traced to imported raspberries from Guatemala. The cause of the current outbreak has not yet been determined.

As of Wednesday, 153 people in nine states had contracted hepatitis A, a liver disease, by eating a frozen berry mix that contained pomegranate seeds from Turkey, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sixty-six of them were hospitalized.

Brian Kennedy, with the Grocery Manufacturers Association in Washington, D.C., said the new rules were another step forward toward implementation of FSMA, a "landmark law" that "ensures that prevention is the cornerstone of our nation's food safety strategy."

FDA will accept public comment for four months and then incorporate the feedback into the rules, which are expected to be published in final form and take effect in 2015.

The new rules will "create a level playing field" for U.S. food producers that now have to compete with overseas growers and packers who don't always operate under the same high level of safety required here, Taylor said.

GMA's Kennedy called the rules "a role model for what can be achieved when the private and public sectors work together to achieve a common goal."

The requirements are often as simple as making sure water used to wash greens is not contaminated with manure and that people working in packing sheds have access to toilets and a place to wash their hands, said Erik Olson, director of food safety programs at the Pew Charitable Trusts.

"Some of that is supposed to be already required under voluntary standard. The problem is that voluntary standards are not enforceable and not everybody agrees to them," Olson said.

2013 Food borne illness outbreaks in imports:

• Hepatitis A: June 2013

Nine states. Source: Turkish pomegranates in a frozen berry mix; 153 ill, 66 hospitalized, no deaths.

• Salmonella Montevideo, Salmonella Mbandaka: May 2013

Nine states. Source: Tahini sesame paste from Turkey. 16 ill, one hospitalized, one death.

• Salmonella Saintpaul: April 2013

18 states. Source: Cucumbers from Mexico; 84 ill, 17 hospitalized, no deaths.