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FDA
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Within FDA, the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) is responsible for activities concerning FDA-regulated food and cosmetic products. It promotes and protects the public health by ensuring that the food supply is safe, nutritious, wholesome, and honestly labeled, and that cosmetics are safe and properly labeled. CFSAN has extensive information available on the web about its activities, including international activities.
Most food and cosmetic products do not need to be registered with or approved by the FDA before being marketed in the United States. In general, control over imported food and cosmetic products is exercised at the point of entry or in the United States marketplace. However, there are special requirements for the:
Except for those cosmetics that are also drugs, e.g., sunscreens, FDA is able to regulate cosmetics only after products are released to the marketplace. Neither cosmetic products nor cosmetic ingredients, other than color additives, need to be reviewed or approved by FDA before they are sold to the public. FDA cannot require companies to do safety testing of their cosmetics before marketing. If, however, the safety of a cosmetic product has not been substantiated, the product's label must read "WARNING: The safety of this product has not been determined." For additional information on cosmetics, refer to the Cosmetic Handbook for Industry
CFSAN must ensure that foreign manufacturers meet the same high standards as domestic manufacturers. Full equity in foreign inspections is far beyond the resources of FDA. Therefore, CFSAN is aggressively pursuing both informal and formal agreements with foreign government counterpart officials including Memoranda of Understanding for mutual recognition of equivalence of regulatory systems.
CFSAN provides ever increasing amounts of information on its laws, regulations and policies to foreign government counterparts as well as the health community on a worldwide basis and is concurrently attempting to strengthen systems for dissemination of such information from outside the U.S. Programs of formal information sharing, exchange of information with foreign visitors, conducting negotiation meetings and providing technical cooperation activities promote this goal.
The harmonization of laws, regulations and standards between and among trading partners requires intense, complex, time-consuming negotiations by CFSAN officials. Harmonization must simultaneously facilitate international trade and promote mutual understanding, while protecting national interests and establish a basis to resolve food issues on sound scientific evidence in an objective atmosphere. Failure to reach a consistent, harmonized set of laws, regulations and standards within the NAFTA and the World Trade Organization Agreements can result in considerable economic repercussions.
Codex Activities - FDA now has a web page describing its Codex activities. The U.S. Codex office also has a web site.
Other Agencies - There are a number of other Federal agencies with food-related responsibilities that can provide information.