Title: Truth in Certification for Foreign Food Ingredients Act
Policy area: Agriculture and Food

Summary:
Truth in Certification for Foreign Food Ingredients Act
This bill amends the Agricultural Trade Act of 1978 to require the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) to carry out a program to enhance transparency and traceability of food products and ingredients that are exported to the United States in order to protect consumers and food manufacturers against mislabeling, adulteration, and fraud.
Under the program, the FAS must provide foreign government officials, agricultural producers, and exporters of food products and ingredients to the United States with technical assistance and best practices to improve: (1) transparency, traceability and fraud prevention; and (2) cooperation with private certification and verification bodies to ensure the accuracy and integrity of their food product and ingredient certification and verification.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4749 Introduced in House (IH)]

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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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Truth in Certification for Foreign 
Food Ingredients Act''.

SEC. 2. PROGRAM OF FOREIGN CAPACITY BUILDING TO STRENGTHEN 
              TRANSPARENCY, TRACEABILITY AND FRAUD PREVENTION OF FOOD 
              PRODUCTS AND INGREDIENTS EXPORTED TO THE UNITED STATES.

    (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Approximately 15 percent of the United States food 
        supply consists of imported products.
            (2) Food products and ingredients with special 
        characteristics command a premium price in the United States 
        market.
            (3) American food manufacturers rely on getting ingredients 
        that consistently meet the specifications they need.
            (4) Many foreign governments lack the capacity or expertise 
        to trace back food ingredients or protect against fraudulent 
        changes in paperwork to ensure that ingredients exported to the 
        United States were actually produced in accordance with the 
        standards claimed.
            (5) Such frauds cheat consumers who are willing to pay 
        premiums for food and feed with special characteristics, cheat 
        producers and processors who use ingredients with special 
        characteristics, and unfairly put American producers at a 
        competitive disadvantage in marketing specialized products.
            (6) Fraudulent food imports also put consumers who have 
        food allergies at risk when food labels are mislabeled and do 
        not accurately reflect the ingredients contained in the food 
        product.
    (b) Capacity Building Program.--Section 503 of the Agricultural 
Trade Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 5693) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``The Service'' and inserting ``(a) In 
        General.--The Foreign Agricultural Service''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(b) Transparency, Traceability and Fraud Prevention Program for 
Food Products and Ingredients Exported to the United States.--
            ``(1) Program required.--The Administrator of the Foreign 
        Agricultural Service shall carry out 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.
            ``(2) Program elements.--As part of the program, the 
        Foreign Agricultural Service shall provide foreign government 
        officials, foreign agricultural producers, and foreign 
        exporters of food products and ingredients to the United States 
        with technical assistance and best practices to improve--
                    ``(A) transparency, traceability and fraud 
                prevention, including best practices for direct 
                government inspection and certification of food 
                products and ingredients in international trade; and
                    ``(B) cooperation with private certification and 
                verification bodies to ensure the accuracy and 
                integrity of their food product and ingredient 
                certification and verification.
            ``(3) Priorities.--The Administrator of the Foreign 
        Agricultural Service shall prioritize the provision of 
        technical assistance to those foreign countries determined to 
        be at the greatest risk of exporting mislabeled, misbranded, or 
        adulterated food products or ingredients or food products or 
        ingredients that do not meet the special characteristics that 
        are claimed for the products or ingredients in order to command 
        premium prices.
            ``(4) Cooperation and coordination.--The Administrator of 
        the Foreign Agricultural Service shall carry out the program in 
        cooperation with the Administrator of the Agricultural 
        Marketing Service and in coordination with the Administrator of 
        the United States Agency for International Development.''.
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