THE
SUBCONTINENTAL spread
Critical
surveillance for food safety is no longer just a cosmetic function but
an imperative for establishing ground in international markets, says
Shailendra Agarwal
Food
safety has increasingly become a critical issue of concern not only
for the developed countries but for the developing countries as well.
The developed countries, particularly the EU and US, are known to take
serious measures in order to ensure food safety for their citizens.
These countries also resort to the imposition of various stringent laws
and regulations in order to be in an unassailable position to reject
the imported consignments on grounds of contamination.
EU
authorities, due to an alleged presence of Nitrofuran, recently rejected
three consignments of egg powder, while Belgian authorities rejected
two other consignments. A consignment of Indian snack food was detained
in Italy in December 2003 due to an alleged detection of the banned
dye, Sudan-1 (a carcinogenic substance often mixed in chilli and chilli
products).
Bioterrorism
Act: pros and cons
The
sensitivity of the developed countries towards food safety can be gauged
by a recent regulation passed by the US. After the events of September
11, 2001 the US reinforced the need to enhance food security in the
country. The US congress responded by passing the Public Health Security
and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, also known as
the Bioterrorism Act, which became a law on June 12, 2002.
The
whole system, designed to bolster the safety and security of America’s
food supply, would help with a quick identification and notification
of food processors and other facilities involved in any deliberate or
accidental contamination of food.
The
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued an interim final
regulation, which implements the Bioterrorism Act and requires all domestic
and foreign facilities that manufacture, process, pack or hold food
for human or animal consumption in the US to register with the FDA.
The registration with the FDA is one of the several tools that will
enable it to act quickly in responding to a threatened or actual terrorist
attack on the US food supply by giving the FDA information about the
defaulters. The registration information will also enable FDA to notify
the facilities that might be affected by the outbreak. Three major components
of the Bioterrorism Act entail that the owner, operator or agent in
charge of a facility is responsible for the submission of a registration
to the FDA.
Each
facility must be separately registered and the registration must include
the name and address of the facility and all trade names under which
the registrant conducts business from that facility. The registration
for foreign facilities must also include the name of the US agent present
at the facility – who can be contacted if the FDA needs to get in touch
with the facility. The other critical regulation requires a prior notice
to be submitted to the FDA mentioning the food to be imported or offered
for import into the US. The FDA would compile and maintain a list of
the registered facilities but most importantly the details of the list
would not be subject to public disclosure.
Establishments
excluded from the registration requirements are farms, restaurants,
food retail houses, non-profit food establishments and fishing vessels,
unless the food undergoes further processing or packaging at a facility
outside the US. The third vital regulation specifies information that
must be included and retained for records that would identify the immediate
previous sources and immediate subsequent recipients of food. Failure
to register with the FDA may result in a civil action against the exporter
or detention of the consignment at the port of entry.
The FDA believes that although the registration regulation may alter
industry practices to some extent, these regulations are consistent
with international trade obligations and would help them screen imports
of food more carefully. In order to ensure that the export of food to
the US remains unaffected, the information has been disseminated to
the exporters by various export promotion bodies of the exporting countries.
It is apprehended that these procedural formalities may make exported
products costlier as all the expenses of the FDA agents have to be met
by the exporters.
However,
apart from this, the system may not have any other adverse effect on
processed food export from India. In keeping with such serious concerns
of the developed countries regarding food safety, various food export
promotion bodies under the Government of India have taken a variety
of steps by introducing food safety programmes, particularly for export.....
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