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Oral Testimony of Tim Hammonds, President and CEO Food Marketing Institute, on Improving the Safety of Food Imports

Sep 25, 1998

Before the
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee

Hearing on
Improving the Safety of Food Imports

September 25, 1998
Washington, DC

Good morning Madam Chairwoman and members of the subcommittee. I am Tim Hammonds, president and CEO of the Food Marketing Institute. I'm honored to have the opportunity to testify before you today.

Madam Chairwoman, I will submit my full written statement for the record. In the interest of the subcommittee's time, I will summarize the key points.

Let me start by commending you, Senator Collins, and your subcommittee for investigating the adequacy of government programs to ensure that imported foods are safe. Your inquiry is needed. If anything, it's overdue.

FMI has a long history of working closely on food safety issues with FDA, USDA, and foreign countries that both import our agricultural products and export commodities to us year round. In fact, I am very pleased to see that Senator Coverdell mentioned, in his testimony before you yesterday, FMI's cooperative efforts with FDA and the country of Guatemala to develop a "Model Planof Excellence" to bring their raspberries back into our domestic markets. We are very proud of that program.

Based on our experience, we believe produce imported into the US is safe, nutritious and healthy, yet your hearings have identified shortcomings in the federal system for inspecting imported produce - specifically, that FDA lacks sufficient resources to give consumers the level of protection they demand. The Agency itself has acknowledged these shortcomings. The National Academy of Sciences reached the same conclusion in the report Ensuring Safe Food From Production to Consumption.

Now that we've identified the problem, let's turn to the solution. The recommendations of the Academy, the President's Food Safety Initiative and the General Accounting Office provide an excellent framework for improving the inspection system and making better use of existing government resources. Let me emphasize up front that FMI believes these reforms can be made without costing taxpayers additional money.

First, let's focus on how to improve the inspection system. Clearly, the emphasis should be on prevention- keeping contaminated produce from entering the country. Such a program could include the following components:

A system to evaluate the food safety programs of countries that export produce to America to ensure equivalency with U.S. standards.

Federal authority to reject produce shipments from countries with inadequate food safety controls for their exports to the U.S.

A system to monitor imports similar to FSIS's port-of-entry program.

Food safety standards based on scientific data that can be used at the point of inspection.

A monitoring and verification system to measure performance, based on the risk to consumers, against established government standards.

Improved coordination between FDA and the U.S. Customs Service. Regardless of the exact nature of the system, one critical resource need must be addressed. Additional personnel will be needed for inspection and monitoring at ports of entry. FMI believes this critical need for additional personnel can be met by redeploying to ports of entry existing USDA/FSIS in-plant inspectors freed from their current duties by the modern HAACP-based inspection system for meat and poultry.

There is no question that inspectors will be available. When the new HACCP system is in place, FSIS will no longer need its current complement of inspectors. This will free up thousands of staff-hours for use in other areas of food safety. FSIS has not yet evaluated the risks throughout the food system to determine where these resources can best be used to prevent contaminated foods from reaching the consumer. However, these hearings have identified precisely where the resources would be most effective - at our ports of entry for imported foods.

FMI believes this redeployment can be easily accomplished in several ways, including a cross-utilization program between FSIS and FDA. This program would allow them to share resources for inspecting imported produce and seafood.

The President has already asked his new Council on Food Safety to develop a coordinated budget for the agencies that regulate food safety. The creation of this Council, complemented by the work of this subcommittee and others in Congress, sets the stage for such a cross-utilization program.

However, should such a program not prove feasible, we can meet the same goal by transferring statutory authority for inspecting imported produce from FDA to USDA; or by transferring FSIS inspectors to FDA for reassignment to ports of entry. In our view, a cooperative agreement between the agencies would be far superior to either of these alternatives.

Almost all the other proposals for improving the safety of imported foods that we have seen require additional tax dollars. Fortunately, the resources and expertise needed to implement this plan already exist within the federal government. It is simply a matter of coordinating resources among the affected agencies or redefining responsibilities as directed by Congress. As a result, the approaches I have outlined would be revenue-neutral.

We know that this proposal could meet resistance from both within the government as well as from industry. Debate, of course, is a necessary part of the democratic process.

However, debate that fails to reach a constructive conclusion serves no one's interest. In today's media-oriented society, when issues play out in headlines and sound bites, never-ending arguments over matters as important as food safety leave the public confused, frustrated and angry. Too often we do a masterful job of raising concerns - but a terrible job of resolving them.

This subcommittee, under your leadership, has raised awareness of the shortcomings of our inspection system for imported foods. It is now time to move onto the resolution of these problems.

Thank you Madam Chairwoman and the members of the subcommittee for the opportunity to speak with you today on behalf of the members of the Food Marketing Institute.