The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just released a report which details the progress of the Food Protection Plan that was launched one year ago.  The plan is aimed at protecting the safety of domestic and imported food, and its core strategies are the prevention of outbreaks of food-borne disease, and intervention and response if outbreaks do occur.  The report identifies the FDA’s current food safety goals and outlines its one-year accomplishments for each of the core strategies of the plan. 

Among the accomplishments highlighted in the agency’s report are the following:

· Establishment of FDA offices in five regions which export food and other FDA-regulated products to the United States

· Development of methods to detect melamine and cyanuric acid in feed and feed ingredients

· Quick canvassing of 2,100 Asian food markets by state and local FDA counterparts aimed at the removal of any melamine-contaminated infant formula from China

· Increased inspections of high-risk domestic food establishments

· Use of genetic analysis to identify salmonella strains in seafood and the development of a rapid detection method to identify E. coli and salmonella in food

· Expansion of the FDA’s database of adverse drug events to include adverse feed events

· Approved use of irradiation of iceberg lettuce and spinach

· Identification of best practices for tracing fresh produce throughout the supply chain

To view the Food Protection Plan one-year progress summary:
http://www.fda.gov/oc/initiatives/advance/food/progressreport1108.html

To view the Food Protection Plan in its entirety:  http://www.fda.gov/oc/initiatives/advance/food/plan.html

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