I 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4749 

To amend the Agricultural Trade Act of 1978 to establish a program to 

enhance transparency and traceability of food products and ingredients 

that are exported to the United States in order to protect American 

consumers and American food manufacturers against mislabeling, adulteration, and fraud. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 9, 2018 

Mr. SOTO introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on Agriculture 

A BILL 

To amend the Agricultural Trade Act of 1978 to establish 

a program to enhance transparency and traceability of 

food products and ingredients that are exported to the 

United States in order to protect American consumers 

and American food manufacturers against mislabeling, 

adulteration, and fraud. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Truth in Certification 

5 for Foreign Food Ingredients Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. PROGRAM OF FOREIGN CAPACITY BUILDING TO 

2 STRENGTHEN TRANSPARENCY, TRACEABIL3 ITY AND FRAUD PREVENTION OF FOOD 

4 PRODUCTS AND INGREDIENTS EXPORTED TO 

5 THE UNITED STATES. 

6 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following find7 ings: 

8 (1) Approximately 15 percent of the United 

9 States food supply consists of imported products. 

10 (2) Food products and ingredients with special 

11 characteristics command a premium price in the 

12 United States market. 

13 (3) American food manufacturers rely on get14 ting ingredients that consistently meet the specifica15 tions they need. 

16 (4) Many foreign governments lack the capacity 

17 or expertise to trace back food ingredients or protect 

18 against fraudulent changes in paperwork to ensure 

19 that ingredients exported to the United States were 

20 actually produced in accordance with the standards 

21 claimed. 

22 (5) Such frauds cheat consumers who are will23 ing to pay premiums for food and feed with special 

24 characteristics, cheat producers and processors who 

25 use ingredients with special characteristics, and unVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:16 Jan 10, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4749.IH H4749

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1 fairly put American producers at a competitive dis2 advantage in marketing specialized products. 

3 (6) Fraudulent food imports also put consumers 

4 who have food allergies at risk when food labels are 

5 mislabeled and do not accurately reflect the ingredi6 ents contained in the food product. 

7 (b) CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAM.—Section 503 of 

8 the Agricultural Trade Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 5693) is 

9 amended— 

10 (1) by striking ‘‘The Service’’ and inserting 

11 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Foreign Agricultural Serv12 ice’’; and 

13 (2) by adding at the end the following new sub14 section: 

15 ‘‘(b) TRANSPARENCY, TRACEABILITY AND FRAUD

16 PREVENTION PROGRAM FOR FOOD PRODUCTS AND IN17 GREDIENTS EXPORTED TO THE UNITED STATES.— 

18 ‘‘(1) PROGRAM REQUIRED.—The Administrator 

19 of the Foreign Agricultural Service shall carry out a 

20 program to enhance transparency and traceability of 

21 food products and ingredients that are exported to 

22 the United States in order to protect American con23 sumers and American food manufacturers against 

24 mislabeling, adulteration, and fraud. 


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1 ‘‘(2) PROGRAM ELEMENTS.—As part of the pro2 gram, the Foreign Agricultural Service shall provide 

3 foreign government officials, foreign agricultural 

4 producers, and foreign exporters of food products 

5 and ingredients to the United States with technical 

6 assistance and best practices to improve— 

7 ‘‘(A) transparency, traceability and fraud 

8 prevention, including best practices for direct 

9 government inspection and certification of food 

10 products and ingredients in international trade; 

11 and 

12 ‘‘(B) cooperation with private certification 

13 and verification bodies to ensure the accuracy 

14 and integrity of their food product and ingre15 dient certification and verification. 

16 ‘‘(3) PRIORITIES.—The Administrator of the 

17 Foreign Agricultural Service shall prioritize the pro18 vision of technical assistance to those foreign coun19 tries determined to be at the greatest risk of export20 ing mislabeled, misbranded, or adulterated food 

21 products or ingredients or food products or ingredi22 ents that do not meet the special characteristics that 

23 are claimed for the products or ingredients in order 

24 to command premium prices. 


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1 ‘‘(4) COOPERATION AND COORDINATION.—The 

2 Administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service 

3 shall carry out the program in cooperation with the 

4 Administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service 

5 and in coordination with the Administrator of the 

6 United States Agency for International Develop7 ment.’’. 

Æ 


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