The FDA should seek authority from Congress to augment the agency’s ability to identify foreign firms with a unique identifier to improve the safety of imported foods, as well as assess civil penalties, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. Although the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is undertaking efforts to provide information about imported foods to the FDA for air and truck shipments, substantial gaps in enforcement and collaboration still exist because the agencies' computer systems do not communicate with each other when imported food shipments arrive at U.S. ports. The lack of communication may potentially increase the risk that unsafe food could enter U.S. commerce without FDA review, particularly at truck ports. The GAO report also detailed the FDA's limited authority to ensure importers’ compliance with its regulations, because both the CBP and the FDA do not identify importers with a unique number.
SOURCE: GAO Report, No. 09-873
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