The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has proposed broad rules under the Food Safety and Modernization Act that would put the burden of ensuring that foreign food is safe on the U.S. companies importing the food. Under the proposed rule for foreign supplier verification programs, importers would be required to ensure that their foreign producers meet U.S. safety standards by performing audits, reviewing records and testing foods. A second rule would set an accreditation process for third-party farm and import auditors in response to the anticipated growth of the audit program under FSMA. The rules are open for comment until Nov. 26.
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