• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Thursday, June 14, 2007 10:45 AM

The Food and Drug Administration is exploring ways to overhaul how it inspects and regulates imported food. It is considering--among other actions--using risk analysis to try to pinpoint shipments that might pose hazards.

Under the new approach, countries and private businesses--including foreign manufacturers, importers and U.S. manufacturers using imported ingredients--might be required to provide the FDA with more information about the production, packaging and transportation of imported foods.

The plan, which hasn't been finalized, is likely to include several elements from The 2002 Import Strategic Plan that has been lying dormant in the agency for five years, according to FDA officials. The blueprint called on the agency to move to an approach in which products from countries with mixed or subpar safety records, such as China, would get closer scrutiny than those from countries considered to have strong standards, such as Britain and Canada.

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