Melamine Making the FDA Crack Down on Food at US Ports

Mike Ferrara

Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 650

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Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration assured the American public that infant formulas sold here in the United States do not contain melamine, the toxic chemical that was recently found in Chinese infant formulas containing milk proteins, and has made thousands of Chinese babies seriously ill.

The FDA also announced that it was taking proactive measures to ensure that the rest of the American food supply, not just infant formula, was free of contaminants. In particular, it has begun checking retail stores all over the country for food items imported from China containing milk or milk proteins, including whole and non-fat milk powder, lactose powder, whey powder, and casein, and testing these products for melamine. Products that do contain melamine will subsequently be banned from entering the United States.

To help put banning regulations in place and keep tainted products out of the US food supply, the FDA has proposed a rule to put an end a practice called “port shopping.” What usually happens at a given US port is that FDA inspectors check the food that importers are trying to bring in, and let it pass through if it’s deemed acceptable. If it’s deemed unacceptable, it’s not allowed to enter the country, and importers are supposed to take it back and/or destroy it. What often happens with rejected food, however, is that importers will simply try again, and take it in the exact same condition to another US port, hoping it gets accepted somewhere else. Occasionally, it works, and tainted food ultimately lands on our grocery shelves.

To counter this, the FDA has proposed a system whereby rejected food imports are immediately labeled “UNITED STATES: REFUSED ENTRY” on all shipping containers and all accompanying documents, both paper and electronic. The labels will make it much easier for inspectors at every port to know that a food product has been previously rejected, and will hopefully put an end to "port shopping."