- WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The
Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it hired the Institute of Food
Technologists to evaluate ways food processors can prevent or reduce the
risk of deliberate contamination.
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- The review by the industry food scientists group will
look at chemical treatments, temperature controls and technology that could
help protect the nation's food supply from attack, the FDA said.
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- "The Institute of Food Technologists review will
focus on preventive controls and research needs that might be used for
eliminating or reducing the risk of an intentional act of terrorism or
contamination for high and medium risk combinations of various food commodities
and agents," the FDA said in a statement.
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- The review, which will be kept secret, will be completed
by June 2004, the FDA said.
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- Earlier this year, a General Accounting Office report
said the federal government did not know how safe the food supply was from
possible sabotage and the FDA and the U.S. Agriculture Department lacked
authority to require food companies to adopt stricter security measures.
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- In May, the FDA proposed new regulations ordering food
companies to keep more records to help track foods involved in any future
emergencies or terrorism-related contamination. The agency also plans to
require advance information of food import shipments to intercept any contaminated
products.
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- The United States has more than 57,000 food processors
and 1.2 million food retailers. The entire U.S. food and agricultural industry
is a $200 billion annual business.
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- © Reuters 2003. All rights reserved.
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