Shortfalls in US food residue testing

US consumers rely on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to test imported and domestic crops for prohibited pesticides. Yet the FDA has failed to meet some important milestones in developing the Import Support and Information System, which is to replace its  cumbersome manual processes. FDA has no idea when the system will be finished. The General Accounting Office (GAO) reported in September 1992 that in four FDA districts about a third of imported food where FDA detected prohibited pesticides was not returned to the Customs Service for supervised destruction or export. The GAO believes that the FDA needs the authority to impose civil administration penalties on importers who illegally distribute adulterated food shipments.

Status of FDA’s Efforts to Improve Import Monitoring and Enforcement by Richard Hembra, Director of Environmental Protection Issues, before the Sub Committee on Oversight and Investigations, US House Committee on Energy and Commerce, June 16 1993. 13pp.

[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No.21,September 1993, page 20]