The two federal agencies tasked with enforcing the nation’s food safety laws agreed this week to collaborate better, update biotechnology regulations and implement new safety inspections on produce farms. The biggest change from the agreement between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, however, could come from a review of how food processing facilities currently are regulated by both departments.

Working with two regulators at once gets complicated — the Government Accountability Office recently reported that the agencies have different tests to detect pharmaceuticals in imported fish. Another complication is that the USDA has to have a constant presence in the food production facilities it oversees, but the FDA doesn’t.

“USDA is in the facility every day with inspectors, whereas FDA may be inspecting a facility once a year, and that does have an impact on safety.” says Sarah Sorscher, a regulatory analyst with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group.

In the cooperative agreement announced Monday, the agencies also said they will work together to implement a new produce-safety rule. The FDA is already in charge of investigating recalls from produce farms, but under the new rule, it will do preventive safety inspections on most farms beginning in 2019. The USDA will help with inspections and educate farmers through university extension programs.

Read the full article about better food safety by Grant Gerlock at Harvest Public Media.