Food Safety: Federal Efforts to Ensure the Safety of Imported Foods Are Inconsistent and Unreliable
RCED-98-103
Published: Apr 30, 1998. Publicly Released: May 11, 1998.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed efforts of federal programs to ensure the safety of food imports, focusing on the: (1) differences in the agencies' authorities and approaches for ensuring the safety of imported foods; (2) agencies' efforts to target their resources on foods posing risks; and (3) weaknesses in the controls over imported foods.
Recommendations
Matter for Congressional Consideration
| Matter | Status | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| To strengthen FDA's ability to ensure the safety of imported foods, Congress should require that all food eligible for importation to the United States, not just meat and poultry, be produced under equivalent food safety systems. | In May 1999, two bills were introduced, S.1126 and S.1123, that addressed the equivalency issue. S.1126 requires that imported foods be prepared, packed, and held under a system that the Secretary of HHS determines to provide a level of safety equivalent to that of foods prepared, packed, or held in the U.S. S.1123 also sets out equivalency requirements for imported foods that have been associated with repeated foodborne illnesses. Both bills were referred to the Senate Agriculture Committee. According to Committee staff, the Committee does not plan to address these bills during this Congressional session. |
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Agriculture | To help FSIS better identify the risks associated with specific foods and thereby further improve the Automated Import Information System's usefulness in selecting high-risk products to inspect, the Secretary of Agriculture should direct the Administrator, FSIS, to modify the Automated Import Information System so that the system can identify patterns between laboratory test results and specific foods, foreign firms, and exporting countries. |
USDA concurred with the recommendation. In June 2001, FSIS announced the development of a new port-of-entry inspection system that includes significant changes to the Automated Import Information System (AIIS). The new system requires data entry by country of shipment, the foreign producer, the product species, and unique data to facilitate tracebacks. The system is capable of sharing data with other systems including laboratory test results. FSIS field tested the system and completed installing its software in July 2002. As of August 2002, the new system was operational and the old system is schedueld to be taken out of service in September, 2002.
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| Department of Health and Human Services | To provide more accurate and accessible information to FDA and thus minimize inconsistencies in inspectors' subjective decisions, the Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct the Commissioner, FDA, to clarify and emphasize the guidance inspectors should use when making decisions on which shipments to inspect and test. |
In response to the recommendation, FDA said that, while it believes sufficient guidance is already available to inspectors, it has enhanced the utility of its automated import system by making screening criteria available, which will enable FDA to tell inspection staff why an item has been referred for review.
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| Department of Health and Human Services | To provide more accurate and accessible information to FDA and thus minimize inconsistencies in inspectors' subjective decisions, the Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct the Commissioner, FDA, to modify the Operational and Administrative System for Import Support system so that: (1) it automatically reviews the Import Alert and Low-Acid Canned Food databases and recommends appropriate actions to inspectors; and (2) inspectors can consider previous Laboratory Management System database in choosing shipments for inspections and tests. |
FDA implemented a new version of its automated imported food screening system in June 2001. Inspectors now have the ability to view prior laboratory results when selecting shipments for inspection. The new import screening system also includes selected information from Import Alerts and provides inspectors with the ability to obtain additional information from the Import Alerts database without closing the OASIS program. Although FDA has not enabled the automated system to screen Low Acid Canned Food (LACF) database test results, it has converted the LACF system to a compatible database to ease a linkage with the automated import system.
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| Department of Health and Human Services | To provide more accurate and accessible information to FDA and thus minimize inconsistencies in inspectors' subjective decisions, the Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct the Commissioner, FDA, to ensure that the field offices are taking appropriate corrective action, when warranted, against importers that repeatedly enter incorrect shipping information into the Operational and Administrative System for Import Support database. |
FDA concurred with this recommendation and said that it has taken action to remind FDA District Directors of the Agency's policy that non-compliant filers should be identified and appropriate corrective action taken, including removal of filers from paperless filing status.
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Topics
Consumer protectionContaminated foodsFood industryFood inspectionFood safetyFraudImport regulationManagement information systemsMeat inspectionPoultry inspectionSafety standards