§1401 Pesticide Monitoring and Enforcement Information

Summary

The Secretary of Health and Human Services must put computerized data systems in place for the Food and Drug Administration within 480 days after August 23, 1988. These systems must record and review FDA testing for pesticide residues in food, find gaps in testing (for certain pesticides, types of food, and foods from specific countries or from inside the U.S.), spot trends and health problems from residues, help the FDA focus testing on residues that are a health concern, make required summaries, and give information to help the Environmental Protection Agency do its job under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act and the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The FDA may also use these systems or make more systems to help regulate food and must follow rules for computer design and buying. The systems must make yearly summaries showing which imported and domestic foods were tested, how many samples were tested by country, what residues the tests can find, what residues and levels were found, compliance and violation rates by country-product, and what actions were taken for violations and where those samples ended up. For imports, the summaries must show country of origin and the U.S. district of entry. The systems must also summarize import volumes for food types whose entry value is above an amount set by the Secretary, by country and entry district, using other agencies’ data when possible. Within 90 days after one year of the systems running, and every year after, the Secretary must compile the prior year’s summaries and share them with federal and state agencies and others.