Fairness  for food imports

The healthiest way to get your fruits and vegetables is to head to the nearest farmers market to buy in-season peaches, peppers and green beans. But we still want to munch on mangoes and we get a hankering for blueberries in February. Today’s consumers expect to get what they want when they want it, and they also expect their food to be safe.

Rules proposed by the Food and Drug Administration would require that imported fruits and vegetables follow the same safety practices that already apply to domestically grown produce. Similar rules are already in place for seafood.

The rules create the framework for 2010 legislation passed by Congress with broad bipartisan majorities that modernizes food safety standards, some of which had not been updated since the Great Depression.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association supports the initiative and calls the law a “role model for what can be achieved when the private and public sectors work together to achieve a common goal.”

While some importers (the law exempts small ones) are less enthusiastic, most in the food industry recognize it’s bad for business when consumers are afraid of their food.

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