Changes in international regulations for manufacturers

As you may know, significant changes have occurred in regulations pertaining to companies doing business internationally. It’s not always easy to keep abreast of the changes. I’ve outlined two key changes that will likely require you to revisit your food contaminant program.

The EU has redefined MRLs to be uniform. Until this regulation was in place, each nation had their own national standards that were cumbersome for companies exporting to the EU. Now, with the harmonization into one MRL, exporters need to only follow one standard. As part of this new directive, a new policy went into place: in the absence of an MRL for a particular contaminant, the default MRL of .01 ppm will apply. For more information, click on the following online links:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will be required to be more vigilant in issuing Import Alerts. The enactment of the Food Safety Modernization Act has increased awareness around all areas of food supply chain. An Import Alert is issued when a grower or commodity is determined to be in violation of pesticide residue limits. The FDA’s pesticide monitoring program targets high consumption foods and those that are consumed by infants and children. Once an Import Alert is issued, the grower, commodity or company will be required to demonstrate compliance with the pesticide residue limits, prior to product admission into the U.S. If significant violations occur from a particular region, country, commodity , etc, the product may be on Import Alert until evidence shows that the violations will not recur.

The NFL can help you design and execute a food contaminant program to help mitigate the occurrence of an Import Alert and/or help do the testing and prepare the documentation for the FDA should your company unfortunately be subjected to an Import Alert. For more information, on Import Alerts, click on the following links:

FDA Import Alerts
http://www.fdaimports.com/fda_requirements/imports/fda_import_alerts.php

http://www.fda.gov/ForIndustry/ImportProgram/ImportAlerts/default.htm

- Grace Bandong