WASHINGTON, D.C.—Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Susan Collins (R-ME) today commended the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for issuing new regulations to protect America’s food supply against terrorist acts.
“After 9/11, it became even more apparent that a determined bioterrorist could endanger American lives through the food supply,” said Senator Collins, whose committee has jurisdiction over homeland security. “These regulations are yet another step toward closing the loopholes and lessening the vulnerabilities in our nation’s food supply. The FDA should be commended for moving expeditiously on these rules.”
The first of the two new regulations would require food importers to provide the FDA with advance notice of human and animal food shipments imported or offered for import on or after December 12, 2003. The second regulation would require domestic and foreign food facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold food for consumption in the United States to register with the FDA by December 12, 2003. The regulations were promulgated under the 2002 Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act, also known as the Bioterrorism Act.
Senator Collins noted that many of the provisions in the Act were borne out of a 16-month food safety investigation conducted under her chairmanship of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.