@article{Mosquer:187840,
      recid = {187840},
      author = {Mosquer, M. and Evans, E. A. and Spreen, Thomas and  Walters, L. M.},
      title = {The US Food Safety and Modernization Act:},
      address = {2011},
      number = {530-2016-38295},
      pages = {1},
      year = {2011},
      abstract = {Within the last two decades, food safety has gained  prominence as a global issue.  Much of this can be  attributed to the considerable rise in volume of food  traded at the global level, increased publicity of food  scare events, and greater consumer awareness of the  important linkages between food and health.  The increased  use of advanced food testing techniques and technologies  has also served to heighten awareness of food contamination  – even that which occurs at minute levels.  In response,  governments of developed and developing countries have  sought to protect and reassure consumers of the integrity  of their food supplies by, among other things, establishing  new institutions, standards and methods for regulating food  safety and have increased investments in hazard detection  and control.  
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Food  Safety Modernization Act of 2010 was recently enacted in  the United States. This law provides a framework for the US  Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to inspect,  standardize, educate and test for safety issues along the  US food supply system.  It will likely change how food  companies can operate within the United States, since  almost all food businesses would have to establish food  safety plans consistent with the Hazard Analysis & Critical  Control Points (HAACP) system and to comply with  certification standards. The notable exception to this rule  would be small family farms.  The law also creates expanded  power for the Food and Drug Administration since it  increases the frequency of inspections and creates  mandatory recall authority by the agency.  Food importers  would also be subjected to a several new requirements, one  of which would involve verification of the safety of  imported foods from foreign suppliers. Thus, the FDA would  be empowered to deny entry to foods that lack  certification, or that are sourced from foreign facilities  or countries that have refused US inspectors. 
It is  against this backdrop that the potential effect of the Food  Safety Act on Caribbean food exports to the US is  evaluated. Our analysis focuses on estimations of the  weight of Caribbean food exports to the United States; this  is done with respect to their GDP so as to better  characterize the likely challenges these countries could  face. An important aspect of coping with the new regulation  would be implementation of traceability systems. We argue  that in order for such systems to be cost effective, they  would have to be implemented in the context of value  chains. To illustrate, we provide information on important  lessons learnt by Europeans while implementing their  traceability systems and highlight aspects of successful  value chains implemented by Brazil. This study is important  and timely, given that findings from a recent study  indicated that the share of FDA refusals of food imports  from low-income countries has been increasing.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/187840},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.187840},
}