U.S. FDA Needs Seafood Safety Fixes
Posted on: Thursday, 4 March 2004, 06:00 CST
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The safety of imported seafood is improving but the Food and Drug Administration must act more quickly to stop shipments of potentially bad fish, says a congressional report released Wednesday.
More than 80 percent of the seafood Americans eat is imported.
The General Accounting Office criticized the FDA in 2001 for its seafood oversight, saying then that far too few seafood suppliers were following safety standards. FDA pledged immediate changes in response to the GAO, Congress' investigative arm, including more frequent inspections of high-risk firms.
In Wednesday's report, the GAO cited some improvements, most notably an increase in documented compliance with a crucial anti-contamination program, from 27 percent of U.S. importers in 1999 to 48 percent in 2002.
But investigators had lingering concerns. They said huge delays persist in alerting border inspectors to check for contamination in shipments from foreign firms that FDA discovers have serious safety problems.
Of six firms FDA cited for safety problems in 2002, the average delay in alerting ports of entry was 348 days. Even when inspectors had recommended immediate detention of shipments, such action wasn't taken because the recommendations were delayed at FDA headquarters.
"This lack of management oversight fails to give priority to taking enforcement action for serious violations, and it increases the likelihood that unsafe products will enter the U.S. market," GAO concluded.
FDA didn't immediately comment Wednesday, but told GAO it was working to fix the delays.
Congressional auditors also noted that while many other imported foods come from countries certified to have equivalent food-safety systems, the FDA still has no such equivalence agreements for seafood. The auditors contend such agreements would add a layer of safety to seafood imports from some of the nation's biggest trading partners, letting FDA focus more attention on imports from riskier areas.
FDA told the GAO that while it did have agreements with some countries on handling high-risk raw shellfish, it didn't think broader seafood agreements would improve safety - and that protecting the food supply from terrorist threats was a bigger priority.
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