FDA Imports: Tradeoff — Less Vigilance for More Diligence
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has found its ability to inspect and re-inspect all of the entities involved in food importing in a slow decline, resulting in delays for those dealing in FDA imports. Troubled by its inability to get Congressional funding to pay all of its bills, the FDA came up with an idea: have the importer and the food manufacturer pay for the inspections and re-inspections. With congressional approval, the Food Safety Modernization Act (2011) provides the FDA with the authority to charge such fees based on past costs (currently 2013) of inspections and re-inspections, and…