WASHINGTON — The first two new food safety rules under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Food Safety Modernization Act will go into effect on July 3, the FDA said on Thursday.
The first rule will give the FDA more authority to assess food risk of suspect food products. Starting this summer, the FDA can keep food from the marketplace for 30 days if it believes the food is possibly adulterated or mislabeled. The FDA said the time would be used to determine if federal enforcement action is needed.
"This authority strengthens significantly the FDA's ability to keep potentially harmful food from reaching U.S. consumers," said Mike Taylor, the FDA deputy commissioner for foods, in a written statement."It is a prime example of how the new food safety law allows FDA to build prevention into our food safety system." The second rule adds a reporting mandate for food importers.
Under this rule, food and animal food importers must alert the FDA "if any country has refused entry to the same product," the FDA said.
