Thursday, September 20, 2007

Quality Control on Imported Food Products

The country's largest food suppliers, including Kraft Foods, H.J. Heinz and Dole Food, facing congressional food-safety proposals that could cost them millions of dollars a year, proposed yesterday to grant the government more oversight of the industry.

The plan, offered by the Grocery Manufacturers Association, covers imported food, the subject of increasing attention from Congress. It would require all importers to develop a plan for assuring the quality of imported foods and give the Food and Drug Administration the power to enforce it. Most companies already have such plans, but the FDA does not have authority over them, according to the group.
I'm all for this. I don't want to see growth in the federal government to accomplish quality control in goods coming from overseas, and this seems like a reasonable way to avoid that. Congress was also proposing a fee (ie tax) levied on imports which would amount to $20 per container. That also sounds reasonable.

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