Food Firms Want FDA to Oversee Imports

The country's largest food suppliers, including Kraft Foods, H.J. Heinz and Dole Food, facing congressional food-safety proposals that could cost them millions of dollars a year, proposed yesterday to grant the government more oversight of the industry.

The plan, offered by the Grocery Manufacturers Association, covers imported food, the subject of increasing attention from Congress. It would require all importers to develop a plan for assuring the quality of imported foods and give the Food and Drug Administration the power to enforce it. Most companies already have such plans, but the FDA does not have authority over them, according to the group.

The association's proposal would also create a voluntary program that would allow importers to submit testing records, information about their supply chain and other data to the FDA in return for expedited processing at the borders.

That would allow the FDA to focus on the riskiest importers, the group said.

The proposal focuses on the increasing amount of food being imported into the United States rather than on domestic supplies. The food producers are following toy manufacturers and others who have proposed stronger self-regulation in the face of criticism from Congress after reports of unsafe goods coming into the country from China, including toys with lead-based paint and tainted pet-food ingredients.

It is reminiscent of voluntary programs advocated by food producers last year after three people died and hundreds were sickened following an outbreak of E. coli from tainted spinach traced to California, said California state Sen. Dean Florez.

Read the full Washington Post story here.