Food imports seldom checked
FDA很少對進口食品檢查

Odds favor rogue producers over underfunded, understaffed FDA, critics say

By Diedtra Henderson, Globe Staff  |  May 1, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Rogue exporters have had little trouble shipping suspect products into the United States because the chances of being caught by an underfunded and understaffed Food and Drug Administration are slim.

由于被人力財力均顯不足的FDA抓住的可能性微乎其微，劣質出口商幾乎不費周折就能將可疑產品運入美國。

Critics say the massive pet food recall that has triggered scores of lawsuits is also the result of an FDA wedded to an outdated approach to food safety despite the emergence of new pathogens and globalization of the nation's food supply.

批評者說，大量寵物食品召回已經引發了多起法律訴訟。召回事件也是FDA固守過時的食品安全管理辦法的結果，盡管出現了新的病原體，而且美國的食品供應已經呈現全球化特點。

As a consequence, the nation has become a dumping ground for suspect imports, critics say, because suppliers know there's not much chance of being discovered by FDA inspectors.

批評者說美國已成為可以進口食品的傾銷地，因為供應商知道被FDA檢查人員發現的可能性不大。

Since 1997 , FDA officials say, they have examined just 1 to 1.5 percent of food imports, while shipments skyrocketed from more than 4 million entries in 1997 to more than 15 million in 2006 . Meanwhile, the FDA's regulatory affairs staff is getting leaner -- it shrank from a high of 4,003 full-time employees in the 2003 fiscal year to 3,488 this fiscal year. As a result, non criminal foreign and domestic inspections carried out by FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition staffers amounted to 9,038 in 2005 , down from 11,566 just two years earlier.

FDA的官員說，自1997年以來，它們只對進口食品的1～1.5%進行了檢查，可是美國的食品進口已經從1997年的400多萬項增加到2006年的1500多萬項。于此同時，FDA的日常工作人員卻在不斷減少，從2003財政年度的4003名全職雇員減少到本財政年度的3488名。因此，FDA的食品安全和應用營養學中心的工作人員對國產和進口食品進行的非刑事檢查總共只有9038次，而兩年前為11566次。

The FDA rarely rejects such food ingredients from China, according to an AP analysis. They simply don't rank high on the agency's priority list of items to inspect, former employees say. And even if an inspector rejects ingredients at one port, the supplier can simply gamble that another port will not be so vigilant.

根據美聯社的一篇新聞分析，FDA很少退回從中國進口的食品原料。FDA的前雇員說，這些食品原料根本不在管理局重點檢查的主要名單之列。而且即使一名檢查人員在一個港口退回了食品原料，供應商可以冒險賭一把，指望下一個港口不這么警覺。