Protecting Trade in Safe Food is a Global Concern

Posted on May 11, 2016 by FDA Voice

By: Sharon Mayl and Debbie Subera-Wiggin

Protecting consumers from contaminated foods is a global concern—as well as a key FDA priority. This was clear to us when we attended a World Trade Organization (WTO) conference in Geneva earlier this spring to provide outreach on FDA’s new food safety regulations.

Debbie Subera-Wiggin, left, and Sharon Mayl at the World Trade Organization meeting in Geneva.

This was the 65th meeting of the WTO’s Committee for Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS), an important body that provides a forum for the discussion of food safety and animal and plant health issues that affect the international food trade. While enhancing free trade is WTO’s focus, members understand the importance of facilitating trade in safe food products.

Working with the WTO Secretariat, the U.S. Mission in Geneva and the Office of the United States Trade Representative, we shared information about the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) rules that aim to help ensure the safety of foods exported to the United States. It was exciting to look out at the audience and see public health and trade officials from more than 33 countries and international organizations seeking to learn more about the new food safety regulations.

The United States has been a member of the WTO, which has 162 member nations and observer organizations, since 1995. Under the auspices of this SPS Committee, U.S. trade and regulatory agencies, including FDA, work with governments worldwide on trade issues related to food safety. Their work includes ensuring that the regulations of each nation support the rights and obligations of WTO agreements.

FDA incorporates these obligations into our regulatory process, specifically to ensure that our regulations are risk- and science-based, are created through a transparent process, and are equitable to both domestic and foreign producers, while protecting public health. The WTO SPS Committee is an ideal international venue for sharing information on FDA’s food safety rules.

Our job during this meeting was to share insights on three of the new FSMA rules — in particular, produce safety, foreign supplier verification programs, and accredited third-party certification.

We were very impressed by the interest that the countries’ representatives had in these rules. More than 50 representatives even skipped their lunch to participate in the outreach session and many returned that evening, after the main session closed, to continue the discussion!

WTO members are interested in understanding and meeting the regulatory requirements in FSMA rules so that they can continue to ship safe products to the U.S. Several of the participants expressed their government’s support for working cooperatively with us to strengthen food safety controls.

We left the outreach session with a better understanding that our trading partners are highly motivated to put mechanisms in place that will help their producers and manufacturers comply with the FSMA rules and contribute to robust trade partnerships.

Sharon Mayl, J.D., is a Senior Advisor for Policy in FDA’s Office of Food and Veterinary Medicine; Debbie Subera-Wiggin is a Consumer Safety Officer on the International Affairs Staff in FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.