Federal regulations affecting food are primarily intended to protect public health by ensuring that food is safe. These regulations affect both the cost of growing and manufacturing food and the ever-changing composition of the food supply. According to President Clinton's Executive Order 12866, food safety regulations (like all regulations) must be based on “the best scientific, technical, economic and other information that can be reasonably obtained about the need and consequences of the intended regulation.”. Agencies are also legally responsible for ensuring that the science and analysis included in these regulations meet the requirements of quality, objectivity, usefulness, and integrity.
However, all too often, federal food regulations don't meet any of these requirements. As a result, food regulations cost too much and achieve too little and too often. Information on incremental costs and benefits helps the FDA administration choose which controls to include and which to exclude when presented with the usual variety of ways to address a public health problem. Economic analysis can also indicate ways to increase the profitability of regulation.
For example, economic analysis can show that the incremental costs associated with a particular benefit are very high, with little or no incremental effect on public health. The identification of such provisions allows the FDA to review the proposed regulations in ways that substantially reduce costs without appreciably reducing public health benefits. Collectively, these federal agencies are concerned with the implementation of any food safety legislation and with containing any food safety issues that occur under their jurisdiction. Regulated measures include the modernization of good manufacturing practices and the preventive controls of food production and other food protection programs by the FDA.
In fact, regulations enacted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have always focused primarily on prevention. It focuses on ensuring that all commercial food products are manufactured under the safest and most protected conditions and are within the correct food labeling threshold. Because every part of the food supply chain is vulnerable to food safety hazards, the impact of food safety regulations and laws creates an environment in which all participants in the chain are protected from food safety issues. Uniform food safety regulations provide standardized food safety protocols for such situations to help consumers make better and informed decisions.
In the early 1930s, the FDA and its supporters in Congress began lobbying to replace the Pure Food and Drug Act with stricter legislation that would give the agency greater authority to regulate the patented drug industry. With the expansion of the food industry's efforts to deliver food products to more distant places through globalization, more food safety risks are being introduced into the food supply chain. Without a “BHAG” (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) by all food sectors (manufacturers, supermarkets, restaurants and convenience stores), the industry will not be able to address environmental and public health problems, which are no less urgent than the Covid crisis. The national food safety policy for any food producer may also vary due to the diversity of the products and resources of each country.
On the other hand, some laws have been established as an effective response and food defense solution to the increase in cases of foodborne diseases and other food safety problems, such as acts of food terrorism. A food regulation refers to the laws and administrative regulations that regulate all aspects of the food supply chain, including the supply, production and distribution of food products to protect and maintain food safety. They provide food safety guidelines to prevent the occurrence of any food safety problem that could endanger anyone's life. Monitoring procedures are part of any mandatory food safety regulations to maintain compliance with food service regulations.
Food regulations are usually carried out through any food protection program that involves strategies for food safety, corrective actions and an adequate response to food complaints. .
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