Food Safety: Federal Oversight of Seafood Does Not Sufficiently Protect Consumers

摘要

U.S. importers are required to demonstrate that seafood products from foreigncountries are produced in accordance with Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) regulations for U.S. seafood. The easiest way for importers to meet HACCP responsibilities and requirements is to obtain seafood from foreign firms in countries having an agreement with FDA that documents the equivalent seafood safety systems. Currently, FDA has not completed any agreements for seafood; therefore, importers are required to take affirmative steps to demonstrate that seafood products from foreign countries are produced in accordance with regulations for U.S. seafood. Such affirmative steps include, for example, maintaining a copy of the foreign firms' HACCP plan on file or obtaining a certificate from a foreign government's appropriate inspection authority. FDA also inspects some foreign seafood firms as well as U.S. importers to determine their compliance with FDA's HACCP regulations and some imported seafood products at the U.S. port of entry to verify their safety. In response to your request, we evaluated the effectiveness of FDA's system to control the risk of foodborne illness resulting from unsafe domestic and imported seafood. To conduct this review, we visited the three FDA districts in which the largest volumes of seafood are produced-Seattle, New England, and Florida-to analyze the results of FDA's inspections, to conduct a probability sample of FDA's inspection reports,4 and to interview FDA and industry personnel. We also reviewed selected aspects of the seafood programs of Chile and Canada because these countries are large exporters of seafood products to the United States and they have implemented HACCP systems. In addition, we reviewed the status of pending seafood equivalence agreements, FDA's inspection reports of foreign seafood firms, the results of FDA's seafood inspections of U.S. importers, and seafood examinations at ports of entry.