28 July 2009

[US] Food Safety Bill to Omit Brokers

The following is excerpted from the 28 July 2009 edition of “The Journal of Commerce”.

Customs brokers apparently lobbied successfully to remove language from a bill that would have given the Food and Drug Administration the authority to license and penalize them for violations of a new food safety bill.

Jon Kent, lobbyist for the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, said that the House Ways and Means Committee will send an amended Food Safety Improvement Act of 2009 to the House floor on Wednesday without the clauses that raised a storm of protest in the broker community.

The bill will require producers, packers, manufacturers, and other companies in the food chain to register with the FDA, and adopt standard electronic reporting measures to better help the agency track food contamination. FDA will have the authority to levy penalties for noncompliance.

Brokers objected to being included because they are already under the jurisdiction of Customs and Border Protection. However, Kent said that brokers will still have to register with the FDA….