Japan’s FSMA preparation subject of FDA delegation trip
Camille Brewer, director of International Affairs at FDA’s Office of Foods and Veterinary Medicine and Sema Hashemi director of the Office of Regional and Country Affairs within FDA’s Office of International Programs, said the two events were attended by 400 people in Tokyo and 200 in Osaka.
The US is Japan’s second highest export market, and key products include rice, tea, soy products, confectionery and specialty items, the pair wrote in a blog post.
The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) prepared a 315-page manual with translations of FSMA regulations and FDA presentations for participants.
The pair said meetings with government colleagues in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF), and Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare (MHLW), allowed them to discuss ways in which they can work together to promote food safety.
The US delegation received questions on how FSMA would apply to Japan’s food exports to the country, particularly to green tea and rice, two foods particularly important to Japanese identity and tradition, and learned about the various steps in production of both commodities.
"The Japanese food industry is keenly interested in increasing exports to the US and representatives expressed a strong commitment to fostering an understanding of and compliance with our food safety regulations,” they wrote.
“We move forward more confident than ever in Japan’s strong commitment to food safety and to ensuring that foods exported to the US will be produced under the effective prevention-based systems that FSMA envisions for food supply chains around the world.”
