DeLauro Food Import Safety Act

From the office of Rosa DeLauro:

Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn.-3) introduced the Food Import Safety Act (H.R. 3937), which would strengthen and improve the Food and Drug Administration to reflect the needs of an increasingly global food supply and ensure the agency has the authorities and tools necessary to verify the safety of imported food products.

“Given the numerous recalls associated with imports this past year, we clearly need to reform how this country ensures the safety of imports. We need to work toward creating a modernized system that would empower the FDA to ensure that importers and others involved in food supply are meeting their responsibility to prevent food safety problems, and the Food Import Safety Act would accomplish that. The FDA’s response to the contaminated products being imported from China was tragically slow, and this bill would address the shortfalls in the FDA’s authority that prevents it from ensuring the safety of food imports.”

The Food Import Safety Act includes provisions that would:
Ö Require foreign facilities or countries to meet standards that are equivalent to those in the U.S. before being able to import foods;
Ö Give the HHS Secretary the authority to deny food imports from countries that demonstrate a pattern of violations;
Ö Authorize FDA to inspect overseas plants and make access to foreign plants a condition of entry into the U.S.; and
Ö Provide the FDA with mandatory recall authority.