At today's Food and Drug Law Institute's annual conference in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, M.D. said that one of her priorities is responding to the globalization of the food supply, and the increase in misbranded and adulterated food products imported into the United States
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.