Imported Food in the US Risk

Importing US Food Risk

Imported foods in the U.S have tripled in the past decade. This has made it difficult for regulators to inspect the safety of all products that were consumed in America. A great percentage of the food bought in America come from abroad. Close to eighty percent of active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished drugs come from nations outside America. Importation of foods from outside countries pose a great risk on the health and lives of both animals and individuals in the U.S. according to a research carried out on the risks associated on food importation, it was discovered that a certain number of animals and people in America die while others suffer from serious infections obtained from some imported foods. In 2008, there were some reported cases where cats and dogs were stricken by tainted pet food while people died from contaminations in certain drugs. In both incidents, the ingredients were found to have been imported from China (In Curtis, 2013).

In response to this, the Public Health Security through the Bioterrorism act directs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take additional measures to protect the public from all terrorist attacks on food supply and all other food related emergencies. FDA is the food regulatory agency of the department of Health and Human Services and has the mandate to receive prior notification of food that is imported, including animal feed, in the United States. Prior notice of import shipments give chance to the FDA, through the support of the U.S Custom and Border Protection to focus on import inspections with much effectiveness and help protect the state’s food supply against acts of terror and all other public health emergencies. The FDA food safety act was signe...

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...tories. FDA is therefore developing a program to accreditation of the laboratory as part of implementation actions (Edelstein, 2009).

The government has lounged a website on food safety that provides the latest food safety alerts and recalls from both USDA and FDA (Gale et al., 2009). Applications can be downloaded through phones to enable people get the recalls by going to the specific website. Imported food has posed great risks to the U.S citizens while certain organizations have developed strategies for ensuring food safety for all Americans. Several measures have been taken to ensure that all imported foods match the safety standards of foods manufactured in the U.S. consumers and health care professionals have been encouraged to report all side effects or medication errors realized from the use of both the approved and unproved food and drug substances in U.S