Dialogue on Ingredient Import Safety Hosted by AFIA

After a positive response by members to a survey on ingredient safety, AFIA will host a National Dialogue on Import Ingredient Safety on November 28-29 in Chicago, IL, near O'Hare Airport. Information on registration for the meeting will be forthcoming. The topic of discussion will be AFIA's draft "Guidance for Industry" created for FDA to issue as safety guidelines when purchasing ingredients.

This workshop-type meeting is in line with the President's Interagency Working Group on Import Safety, which is holding a public meeting October 1 and has issued a strategic framework document to the White House. Also, the chair of the President's Working Group, Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt, is negotiating a Memorandum of Agreement with the People's Republic of China regarding safety of imported food, feed, drugs and medical devices from China. AFIA has been providing the Secretary's office information on feed imports.

The National Dialogue meeting will be two half-day meetings and begin with a presentation of FDA's perspective on the recent import safety issue of melamine. It will be followed by a panel of importers detailing their procedures to insure safe imports. Then two groups will be formed to discuss two parts of the AFIA draft "Guidance to Industry". This will conclude the first half day.

The second day will begin with the two groups concluding their discussions and preparing recommendations on the draft document for consideration by the whole group of attendees. The recommendations will be presented, discussed and incorporated into the draft document, as appropriate. When completed, the draft will be presented to the AFIA Executive Committee for action before the year's end.

The President's Working Group strategic design document states that there should be more collaboration between government, importing countries and industry. AFIA believes the government should pay more attention to third-party certification programs, such as the Safe Feed/Safe Food Certification Program that define ingredient procurement and handling procedures to assure safe feed.