FDAImports.com Founder and CEO, Benjamin England, recently led a webinar in conjunction with seafoodsource.com entitled, “Ensuring the Safety of Japanese Seafood.” This webinar addressed the state of food safety and seafood coming from Japan as industry resumes and picks up again following the tsunami and earthquake in the spring. Mr. England addressed the issue, identifying key factors such as FDA’s import alerts, HARPC, FDA examinations and private testing of exports. Additional discussion centered on the coming FDA fee structure changes for food imports (in effect as of October 1st), especially the financial costs associated with shipments coming into the United States with a potential food safety violation. Mr. England stated, “This is not the FDA of even 2 years ago. Although the present FDA is flush with cash due to a lack of budgeting under the Democratic-controlled Congress, it is a part of a government that is flat broke (thanks to the Democratic-controlled Congress). Now FDA is finding violations in dozens of places in all commodities which previously were of little to no concern. At the border, ‘violations’ mean ‘refusals’ and ‘refusals’ lead to demands for payment of liquidated damages from Customs – or ‘money’. But apparently it also leads to new imported food government fees that are far outside the language of the law. These challenges are not limited to Japanese seafood shipments but to all industries of imported FDA-regulated products.”
A sample clip from the presentation is available on SeafoodSource’s website here:
http://www.seafoodsource.com/audiovideodetail.aspx?id=12183
We asked our friends over at SeafoodSource about who should join and what the benefits are. Steve Hedlund, Editor at Seafood Source, wrote this short note for us to pass on directly to our readers.
SeafoodSource is the global seafood trade’s leading source of objective news and insightful opinion spanning the seafood supply chain, from production to consumption. Published daily, SeafoodSource is an easy way for seafood professionals to stay on top of the news and make smarter buying and selling decisions. SeafoodSource members get free access to the daily e-newsletter and much of the site’s content, including news stories and columns from the site’s 11 staff and contributing editors scattered throughout the world. SeafoodSource premium members get access to everything the site has to offer for only $99 a year, included weekly market reports and weekly podcasts featuring influential seafood professionals, as well as monthly webinars on topical subjects.
