Here are a couple of quotes from the article in the url below, which focuses on the increased challenges faced by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in monitoring the inflow of food- and medical-related products into the U.S.:
“A decade ago, the F.D.A. was responsible for policing six million shipments annually coming through 300 ports. This year, the number of shipments is expected to grow to 24 million … . Nearly two-thirds of all fruits and vegetables and three-quarters of all seafood consumed in the United States now come from outside the country. ”
The scale of the problem quickly becomes evident:
“Government investigators estimated in 2008 that the F.D.A. would need 13 years to check every foreign drug manufacturing plant, 27 years to check every foreign medical device plant and 1,900 years to check every foreign food plant at its rate of inspections at the time. And with imports growing faster than the agency’s inspection force, those numbers have only mounted. ”
The oversight of firms bringing food and medical products into the U.S. is minimal. As a result, the incentive to subvert the controls put in place to regulate these products is high.
Have a good weekend.
David
Instructor Teaching Site: http://www.sagepub.com/strategiccsr/
The library of CSR Newsletters are archived at: http://strategiccsr-sage.blogspot.com/
F.D.A. Confronts Challenge of Monitoring Imports
By Gardiner Harris
June 21, 2011
The New York Times
Late Edition - Final
B3
