Food safety law: Six ways it will make food safer

2. More control over imports

Sara Miller Llana/The Christian Science Monitor/File
Boxes of fresh lettuce are loaded up in Salamanca, Mexico, Oct. 5, 2010, to be sent to the US. The new food-safety bill gives the FDA more authority to ensure that food imports meet US standards.

Until the new law, FDA inspectors could inspect food imports at the border and work voluntarily with foreign governments and food companies to bring their standards up to US levels. Now, the agency will also be able to require importers to verify that their foreign suppliers are living up to those standards. "FDA for the first time will have real authority over imported food," says Bill Hubbard, a former FDA associate commissioner.

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