Cal Dooley, president and CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) today unveiled Commitment to Consumers: The Four Pillars of Food Safety, a unique proposal designed to protect consumers by strengthening, modernizing and improving the system governing the safety of food and food ingredients imported into the United States.
“Ensuring the United States has the safest food supply in the world is priority number one for the food and beverage industry,” said Mr. Dooley. “Because we cannot simply inspect our way to a safer food supply, industry can apply its vast knowledge and practical experience along the entire supply chain to prevent problems before they arise. And, under our proposal, a fortified FDA will be right there with us, side by side, to make sure we do it right.”
Prevention and a stronger public-private food safety partnership are the foundation of GMA’s Four Pillars proposal. If adopted, all importers of record would be required to adopt a foreign supplier quality assurance program and verify that imported ingredients and products meet U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food safety and quality requirements. The program would be based on FDA guidance and industry best practices, and would be monitored and enforced by the FDA.
The second pillar of the proposal would allow FDA to focus even greater resources on products and countries deemed of higher risk through a program that would allow food companies/importers to qualify their products as lower risk by sharing test results, data and supply chain information with the FDA in a confidential manner. Qualifying products and ingredients would receive expedited treatment at the borders, allowing the FDA to train its resources on products that carry greater risk of contamination.
The third leg of the proposal focuses on building capacity within foreign governments to facilitate food safety standards that are more closely aligned with those of the FDA.
Finally, recognizing that FDA must be armed with the appropriate resources to administer this program and adequately fulfill its food safety mission, the fourth pillar seeks to expand the capacity of FDA, by providing the Agency with the resources it needs to get the job done.
Echoing a major theme from last week’s White House Interagency Working Group on Import Safety report, the Four Pillars program proposal is intended to improve the safety of food imports through an integrated, “life-cycle” approach centering on prevention.
“The ‘Four Pillars’ proposal is an innovative and comprehensive approach that offers effective and practical solutions to the latest challenges to our food safety net. It builds upon a long and successful history of partnership and cooperation between the public and private sectors that has provided our country with what is still one of the safest food supplies in the world. I look forward to working with Congress, the Bush Administration and appropriate agencies to adopt this prevention-first strategy,” concluded Mr. Dooley.