United States of America

Codex Contact Point

U.S. Codex Office, Room 4861 South Building, 1400 Independence Ave. SW, Washington D.C. 20250-3700

Telephone:
+1 202 205 7760
+1 202 720 2057

Fax:
+1 202 720 3157

Competent authorities

Name of authority:
The United States has multiple agencies that are charged with ensuring food safety.
1. Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the US Department of Agriculture
Mandate/competence:
Authority over all meat, poultry, and egg products.
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/

Name of authority:
2. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services
Mandate/competence:
Authority over all food products except meat, poultry, and egg products. FDA also regulates the use of animal drugs and establishes tolerance levels.
http://www.fda.gov/

Name of authority:
3. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Mandate/competence:
Regulates pesticide use and establishes tolerance levels in food products. FDA and FSIS are responsible for enforcing these tolerances on all foods under their respective authorities.
https://www3.epa.gov/

Name of authority:
4. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the US Department of Agriculture
Mandate/competence:
Safeguards national animal and plant health in the United States by inspecting for disease and/or pests.
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/home/

INFOSAN Emergency Contact Point

FSIS: Sheryl Shaw, Director for Applied Epidemiology Staff, Office of Public Health Science (OPHS) ([email protected])

Food safety and consumer protection – laws and regulations

The current list of legislation, related to food safety and consumer protection in each country, is extracted from FAO's database on Food Legislation FAOLEX. While FAOLEX makes every effort to serve as a high quality, reliable source of information, no guarantee is given that the information provided in FAOLEX is correct, complete, and up-to-date.

The national Codex programme

National Codex consultative mechanism

The United States has established effective mechanisms nationally and internationally to ensure that horizontal communication on cross cutting issues occurs between delegates to various food standards related international organizations. This includes consultations by our delegates with other federal agencies, consumer groups, and industry representatives during the drafting of U.S. positions, followed by public meetings prior to each Codex Committee session that solicit input on the draft U.S. position from the public at large. These public meetings, which are notified via the Federal Register, press releases, and the U.S. Codex website, are open to all interested parties. They also afford the opportunity for those who cannot physically attend to participate via telephone.

Providers of scientific and technical input to national consultation on Codex

We seek input from all relevant federal agencies, consumer groups, and industry groups during the drafting of U.S. positions and in the development of new project documents.

Risk Assessments and Scientific Data

National bodies providing risk assessment and scientific advice

FSIS, FDA, EPA

Risk assessment, risk profiles, scientific opinions

CFSAN Risk & Safety Assessments, including risk profiles, with hyperlinks to each:
https://www.fda.gov/food/science-research-food/cfsan-risk-safety-assessments

CVM Risk Assessments may be found in the Freedom of Information (FOI) Summaries. The actual summaries are now linked in the searchable database – Animal Drugs @ FDA.
https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/approved-animal-drug-products-green-book/foia-drug-summaries

EPA, Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) risk assessment and risk management decisions are publicly available via the Federal Register (https://www.federalregister.gov/) and undergo a public comment review process.

FSIS Risk Assessments: https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/science/risk-assessments/risk-assessments

Official Laboratories

Official Laboratory:
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/science/laboratories-and-procedures/accredited-laboratories/accredited-laboratories
Official Competence:
Provided in the link.

Official Laboratory:
http://www.fda.gov/ScienceResearch/FieldScience/
Official Competence:
With regard to the FDA link, if you access the links to the individual field labs you can find their competencies.

Surveillance of foodborne diseases and monitoring of food contamination

National surveillance systems – foodborne disease in humans

Federal partners work closely with each other as well as with state and local agencies, private companies, and consumers to address food safety from farm to table. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state public health agencies are responsible for monitoring, identifying, and investigating foodborne illness and outbreaks. CDC coordinates closely with FDA and USDA as the U.S. regulatory authorities for food products. The U.S. capacity to detect and respond to foodborne outbreaks, including those that result in a public health emergency, has improved dramatically in the past two decades. Since 1996, CDC has used DNA "fingerprinting" of bacteria (including whole genome sequencing) to enhance outbreak detection and define the scope and scale of outbreaks beyond traditional methods. That system, PulseNet consists of over 80 federal, state, and local laboratories in the United States.

CDC works closely with State and local health departments who have the primary statutory authority and responsibility for disease surveillance. Most foodborne outbreaks are local events in just one city or county; local public health officials investigate those outbreaks. State health departments investigate outbreaks that spread across several cities or counties. Those health departments often work with their departments of agriculture and with federal food safety agencies as needed. In partnership with FDA and FSIS, CDC typically leads investigations of multistate outbreaks – those that affect many states at once. However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the lead federal agency for law enforcement investigations of any potentially intentional biological or chemical threat or incident, such as, but not limited to, food adulteration.

National monitoring systems – foodborne hazards in the food chain

FDA pesticide monitoring program

FDA Total Diet Study - The Total Diet Study (TDS) is an ongoing FDA program that monitors levels of about 800 contaminants and nutrients in the average U.S. diet. Chemical contaminants include radionuclides, pesticide residues, industrial chemicals, and toxic elements, either naturally occurring or resulting from human activity (e.g., arsenic, mercury)

The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) is a collaborative program of state and local public health departments and universities, the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This national public health surveillance system tracks changes in the antimicrobial susceptibility of enteric (intestinal) bacteria found in ill people (CDC), retail meats (FDA), and food animals (USDA) in the United States.
https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/antimicrobial-resistance/national-antimicrobial-resistance-monitoring-system

USDA Aflatoxin Program

USDA Pesticide Data Program monitors pesticide residue levels in the U.S. food supply. https://www.ams.usda.gov/datasets/pdp