Understanding Food Safety Laws And Regulations
Food safety is controlled by a set of rules and regulations that govern the process of food production, food distribution and food consumption. Food laws cover all parts of food production starting from food production, food processing, food packaging, food labeling, food importing, food distribution, food retailing and food catering. In United States, food safety is governed by 30 federal food laws and regulations which are administered by around 15 federal agencies. USDA or the U.S. department of Agriculture and FDA or Food and Drug Administration has the primary responsibility to oversee food safety laws in USA. In USA, different states have different set of rules and regulations and agencies committed to safety of food. The federal Centers for Disease Control or CDC are committed to investigate local and nationwide outbreaks of the different types of food borne illnesses. USDA and FDA's food safety laws and functions overlap most often, especially food inspection or food enforcement, food research, food training, rule making, both for domestic and imported food products. Both FDA and USDA perform food inspections at 1500 dual jurisdiction establishments which are institutions that produce foods regulated by both the agencies. The Role of USDA The primary responsibility of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is ensuring safety of meat, eggs and poultry products. The regulatory authority of the U.S. Department of Agriculture comes from the Poultry Products Inspection Act, Federal Meat Inspection Act, Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act and the Egg Products Inspection Act. Food Safety and Inspection Services of USDA involves inspection of food products including meat, eggs and poultry products sold in interstate
commerce. USDA also reinspects meat poultry and egg products imported from other countries to ensure that they meet U.S. standards. USDA is responsible for ensuring the wholesomeness, safety, and labeling of meat, processed egg and poultry products.
The Role of FDA Food Development Authority (FDA) is authorized by Public Health Services Act and Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and regulates food products other than poultry and meat products. FDA is mainly responsible for the safety of drugs, biologics, radiation emitting devices, medical devices, cosmetics, animal feed and drugs. The Role of CDC The primary responsibility of the Centre for Disease Control is to gather data on investigative food borne illnesses, food borne diseases and the different types of control efforts to evaluate disease prevention strategies. Centre for Disease Control funds several programs to build state and local capacity to improve food borne disease surveillance, laboratory, and investigate outbreaks.