{domain:"www.qualitydigest.com",server:"169.47.211.87"} Skip to main content

User account menu
Main navigation
  • Topics
    • Customer Care
    • FDA Compliance
    • Healthcare
    • Innovation
    • Lean
    • Management
    • Metrology
    • Operations
    • Risk Management
    • Six Sigma
    • Standards
    • Statistics
    • Supply Chain
    • Sustainability
    • Training
  • Videos/Webinars
    • All videos
    • Product Demos
    • Webinars
  • Advertise
    • Advertise
    • Submit B2B Press Release
    • Write for us
  • Metrology Hub
  • Training
  • Subscribe
  • Log in
Mobile Menu
  • Home
  • Topics
    • 3D Metrology-CMSC
    • Customer Care
    • FDA Compliance
    • Healthcare
    • Innovation
    • Lean
    • Management
    • Metrology
    • Operations
    • Risk Management
    • Six Sigma
    • Standards
    • Statistics
    • Supply Chain
    • Sustainability
    • Training
  • Login / Subscribe
  • More...
    • All Features
    • All News
    • All Videos
    • Contact
    • Training

Border Crossings

Working with partners to verify the safety of imported produce

FDA
Thu, 04/07/2016 - 16:54
  • Comment
  • RSS

Social Sharing block

  • Print
Body

One of the vivid images that sticks with me from my tenure at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is of the port of entry at Nogales, Arizona. There, I saw large trucks from Mexico lined up as far as the eye could see, awaiting entry into the United States‎, many loaded full with fresh produce.

ADVERTISEMENT

I was told by our FDA team that, during the busy season, as many as 1,500 produce trucks enter the United States there daily, and Nogales isn’t even the busiest port of entry on the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.

That visit to Nogales happened during the early phase of the food safety modernization initiative at the FDA‎, but it had a lasting effect on me. It drove home the degree of difficulty we would face in fulfilling the produce safety vision embodied in the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

With 50 percent of our fresh fruit and 20 percent of our vegetables coming from growers in other countries, the challenge was not only to establish produce safety rules that would be effective and workable across the hugely diverse produce sector, but also to verify with reasonable confidence that those standards are being met consistently, every day, regardless of where the produce is grown.

 …

Want to continue?
Log in or create a FREE account.
Enter your username or email address
Enter the password that accompanies your username.
By logging in you agree to receive communication from Quality Digest. Privacy Policy.
Create a FREE account
Forgot My Password

Add new comment

Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
Please login to comment.
      

© 2025 Quality Digest. Copyright on content held by Quality Digest or by individual authors. Contact Quality Digest for reprint information.
“Quality Digest" is a trademark owned by Quality Circle Institute Inc.

footer
  • Home
  • Print QD: 1995-2008
  • Print QD: 2008-2009
  • Videos
  • Privacy Policy
  • Write for us
footer second menu
  • Subscribe to Quality Digest
  • About Us
  • Contact Us