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Welcome to the United Fresh Produce Association's webpage exclusively for participants in this year's Southern Hemisphere Congress. This page is provided as a complimentary site for your further information and research on matters presented by United Fresh, President & CEO Tom Stenzel during his presentation 30 November 2007 at the Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Please click here for a copy of the PowerPoint presentation.
You are also invited to search the entire www.unitedfresh.org site for additional information about programs and issues you may find of interest.
For more information about programs and services of United Fresh Produce Association, please click here.
Please also visit United Fresh Las Vegas 2008 site for detailed information on the educational and business networking opportunities ahead at our convention this spring.
President’s Interagency Working Group Finishes Import Food Safety Plan
The President’s Interagency Working Group has published its Action Plan for Import Safety, a comprehensive review of current import safety practices. The Action Plan contains short- and long-term recommendations for continuing to improve the safety of imports entering the United States. The Interagency Working Group, chaired by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, was established by President Bush on July 18, 2007 and is made up of senior Administration officials.
The Action Plan presents broad recommendations and specific short-and long-term action steps “under the organizing principles of prevention, intervention and response.” Highlights of the action plan's recommendations include creating a stronger certification process, encouraging good importer practices, increasing transparency, exchanging import data, increasing U.S. presence overseas, enhancing standards and strengthening penalties.
To review the Interagency Working Group Action Plan and Fact sheet please use the following links:
FDA Announces Food Protection Plan
The Food and Drug Administration has published a comprehensive Food Protection Plan that outlines initiatives to better protect the nation’s food supply. FDA’s Food Protection Plan addresses both food safety and food defense (i.e., unintentional and deliberate contamination), for domestic and imported products, through three “elements of protection.”
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PREVENT … Avoid contamination by promoting increased corporate responsibility, identifying food vulnerabilities and risks, and expanding the understanding and use of effective mitigations
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INTERVENE … Intercede at critical points in the supply chain by focusing inspections and sampling by risk, enhancing risk-based surveillance, and improving the detection of food system “signals” that indicate contamination
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RESPOND … Take action rapidly to minimize harm by improving response time and risk communications to the public, industry and other stakeholders.
To be implemented, the Plan will necessitate several additions to FDA’s current authorities, such as allowing FDA to require facilities to implement controls to prevent intentional adulteration, authorizing FDA to issue additional preventive controls for high-risk foods, requiring food facilities to renew FDA registration every two years, authorizing FDA to accredit third parties for voluntary food inspections, authorizing reinspection fees for facilities that fail GMP inspections, authorizing mandatory recall authority when voluntary recalls are not effective, and providing FDA increased access to food records during emergencies. To review FDA’s Food Protection Plan, please use the following link:
For information about international membership in United Fresh Produce Association, please click here. Or, contact us at anytime!
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