FDA TO EXPLAIN RULES FOR PRIOR NOTICES OF IMPORTED FOOD SHIPMENTS
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will hold a public meeting by satellite downlink on Jan. 29 to discuss proposed regulations implementing its prior notice program for imported food shipments.
The regulations are required under the 2002 Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act. “The events of September 11, 2001, highlighted the need to enhance the security of the U.S. food supply,” the FDA said.
Section 307 of the Bioterrorism Act requires that on or after Dec. 12, 2003, the FDA must receive prior notice of each article of imported food or offered for import into the United States. “If the regulation is not final by that date, the Bioterrorism Act still requires FDA to receive prior notice of not less than 8 hours and not more than 5 days until the regulation takes effect,” the agency said.
The FDA plans to publish a final rule by Oct. 12.
“Persons involved in the shipment or the carriage of imported food shipments into the United States should monitor this rulemaking carefully,” said Dennis L. Bryant, an attorney with Haight Gardner Holland & Knight in Washington. “It could bite you where you are not looking.”
The satellite downlink public meeting will be offered in English, with French and Spanish translation, and will be simulcast live in English, French, and Spanish for North, Central and South America, the agency said.
For more information about the meeting and proposed regulation, access on line http://www.fda.gov/oc/bioterrorism/.