The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is increasingly stopping and examining imported shipments of food attempting to enter the United States. Often, the FDA does not allow the food to enter the United States by declaring it to be misbranded or adulterated. Typically, refused food is then either destroyed or exported from the United States. There is another option called "reconditioning".
I read a fascinating article entitled "HOMELAND SECURITY HASN'T MADE US SAFER" in the January/February issue of Foreign Policy magazine. The article criticized the massive spending of time and money by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Ms. Applebaum aimed her barbs right at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) with the comment: "AS FOR THE TSA, I AM NOT AWARE OF A SINGLE BOMBER OR BOMB PLOT STOPPED BY ITS TIME-WASTING PROCEDURES." Is Ms. Applebaum stating something we all know already, is ignorant of the truth, or somewhere in between?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued notices to foreign food facilities registered with the FDA that it will conduct an inspection of those facilities between October 1, 2010 and September 30, 2011. Foreign food facilities that manufacturer, process, pack, hold, and ship food to the United States must have registered with the FDA pursuant to the Bioterrorism Act. Foreign food facilities that do not properly respond to the FDA notices will result in a detention of any food that arrives in the United States from those canceled facilities.
The United States Congress is considering legislation to make the food we eat, especially imported food, "safe and secure". In my opinion, even if our food needs protecting, the proposed legislation only adds to the current Federal bureaucracy. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration already has a comprehensive regulatory procedure to stop, examine, and refuse imported food which it considers adulterated or misbranded, or otherwise not fit for human consumption. The current FDA system is working very well, and the only achievement of the proposed legislation will be to increase the price of food.
Effective August 20, 2009, the new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regulations increased the maximum amount of its monetary penalties against aircraft operators and freight forwarders/indirect air carriers (IACs) for violations of the Transportation Security Regulations. TSA also made significant change to its Investigative and Enforcement Procedures in 49 CFR Part 1503. There are ways to avoid being penalized by the TSA, or to reduce any monetary penalty assessed by the TSA for air cargo transportation related violations.
On September 16, 2009, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issued new air cargo screening rules. The rules are generally well thought out, except for one glaring problem.
If your company ships hazardous materials (a/k/a "HAZMAT"), a single misstep could cause your business to incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties. If you think "well, I made only one mistake--I won't get caught," or if you think you can talk yourself out of getting a penalty like you do a speeding ticket, think again. When the FAA investigates an incident and issues a penalty, you can bet what you think is just one violation will quickly become multiple violations.