Imported food rarely inspected
By ANDREW BRIDGES
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Just 1.3 percent of imported fish, vegetables, fruit and other foods are inspected - yet those government inspections regularly reveal food unfit for human consumption.
Frozen catfish from China, beans from Belgium, jalapenos from Peru, blackberries from Guatemala, baked goods from Canada, India and the Philippines - the list of tainted food detained at the border by the Food and Drug Administration stretches on.
Add to that the contaminated Chinese wheat gluten that poisoned cats and dogs nationwide and led to a massive pet food recall, and you've got a real international pickle. Does the United States have the wherewithal to ensure the food it imports is safe?
Food safety experts say no.
With only a minuscule percentage of shipments inspected, they say the nation is vulnerable to harm from abroad, where rules and regulations governing food production are often more lax than they are at home.
"FDA doesn't have enough resources or control over this situation presently," said Mike Doyle, director of the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety, which works with industry to improve safety.
Last month alone, FDA detained nearly 850 shipments of grains, fish, vegetables, nuts, spice, oils and other imported foods for issues ranging from filth to unsafe food coloring to contamination with pesticides to salmonella.
And that's with just 1.3 percent of the imports inspected. As for the other 98.7 percent, it's not inspected, much less detained, and goes to feed the nation's growing appetite for imported foods.
Each year, the average American eats about 260 pounds of imported foods, including processed, ready-to-eat products and single ingredients. Imports account for about 13 percent of the annual diet.
"Never before in history have we had the sort of system that we have now, meaning a globalization of the food supply," said Robert Brackett, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
FDA inspections focus on foods known to be at risk for contamination, including fish, shellfish, fruit and vegetables. Food from countries or producers previously shown to be problematic also are flagged for a closer look.
Consider this list of Chinese products detained by the FDA just in the last month: frozen catfish tainted with illegal veterinary drugs, fresh ginger polluted with pesticides, melon seeds contaminated with a cancer-causing toxin and filthy dried dates.
But even foods expected to be safe can harbor unexpected perils. Take wheat gluten: Grains and grain byproducts like it are rarely eaten raw and generally pose few health risks, since cooking kills bacteria and other pathogens.
Even so, the FDA can't say for sure whether the ingredient used in the pet foods was inspected after it arrived from China. And if the wheat gluten was, officials said, it wouldn't have been tested for melamine. Even though the chemical isn't allowed in food for pets or people, in any quantity, it previously wasn't believed toxic.
How did the melamine wind up in the wheat gluten? Investigators still don't know. Meanwhile, China is struggling to overhaul its food system and improve safety standards, but still faces major hurdles.
Farmers use pesticides and chemical fertilizers to build produce yields and antibiotics are used on seafood and livestock. Heavy metals also can be introduced into the food chain by widespread industrial pollution.
Increasingly, those foods are sold in a now global marketplace.
While the European Union, Canada and Mexico still top the list of food exporters to the U.S., China is coming up fast. Since 1997, the value of Chinese food imports, including commodities like wheat gluten, has more than tripled, to $2.1 billion from $644 million, according to Agriculture Department statistics. It accounts for 3.3 percent of the total food the U.S. buys abroad.
For suspect imported products - and wheat gluten is now one of them - the FDA issues alerts to its inspectors. The FDA flags Chinese food and other imported products it regulates, like cosmetics, for that extra scrutiny more than any other country except Mexico.
To safeguard its export business, China is looking at separating foods by their ultimate destination, domestic or foreign, according to Michiel Keyzer, director of the Center for World Food Studies at Amsterdam's Vrije Universiteit.
U.S. government statistics suggest China still has a way to go.
The FDA has been stopping Chinese food import shipments at the rate of about 200 per month this year. Shippers have the right to appeal the detentions, after which the government can order products returned or destroyed.
How do you know the origin of the food you eat? The 2002 Farm Act called for fish, fruit and vegetable imports to be labeled by country of origin, though implementation for the latter two foods has been delayed.
Meanwhile, the U.S. imports more and more, though the increase in value is partially due to the weaker dollar.
All told, the U.S. is expected to import a record $70 billion in agricultural products for the 12 months ending in September, according to an Agriculture Department forecast. The value of those imports will be about double the nearly $36 billion purchased overseas in 1997.
Contributing to that growth are the fresh fruits and vegetables imported during the offseason, when domestic production dwindles or ends.
About one-quarter of our fruit, both fresh and frozen, is imported. For tree nuts, it's about half. And for fish and shellfish, more than two-thirds come from overseas.
Even as the amount of imported food increased, the percentage of FDA inspections declined - from 1.8 percent in 2003 to 1.3 percent this year to an expected 1.1 percent next year.
"Inspections have a very important role but they're not the solution. They are the verification," FDA commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach said.
The FDA and the USDA have adopted a "risk-based" inspection philosophy, focusing on specific foods, sources or producers that they believe represent the largest potential risk to the public's health.
"The public at large is not at any increased risk," said Craig Henry, senior vice president and chief operating officer for scientific and regulatory affairs of the Grocery Manufacturers-Food Products Association, an industry group.
Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group, countered that "risk-based" is just shorthand for "reduced resources."
"Whenever they say 'risk-based approach,' it often means they don't have enough staff to actually do the job. They're doing triage. They're trying to hit what's most important to inspect but they're missing a lot," DeWaal said.
Groups lobbying to increase the FDA's budget say its spending on food safety has languished, despite the agency's outsized role in ensuring the safety of the nation's food supply.
A recent Government Accountability Office report noted that most of the $1.7 billion the federal government allocates to food safety goes to the USDA, which is responsible for regulating about 20 percent of the food supply. The FDA, responsible for most of the other 80 percent, gets about 24 percent of the total spent on food safety.
Unlike the FDA, the USDA requires foreign inspection certificates to accompany all products it regulates, which include meat and poultry. Those imports are then reinspected at each port of entry before they are allowed into this country - something that doesn't happen to all FDA-regulated imports.
Under the Bioterrorism Act of 2002, anyone importing food into the United States is required to notify the FDA of the shipment before it arrives by land, air or sea. That allows the FDA to intercept contaminated products before they reach the marketplace, though agency officials acknowledge it doesn't always work that way.
"We have better control than we did a few years ago but it is largely the responsibility of the importer to make sure those products are safe," said Stephen Sundlof, the FDA's top veterinarian.
ChemNutra Inc., the Las Vegas importer of the tainted wheat gluten, said it was "particularly troubled" that its supplier did not disclose it contained melamine.
Doyle, of the University of Georgia, warned the contaminated pet food could be an unsavory taste of what's to come.
"This is not the first and will not be the last but it certainly is a wakeup call for the public to get a better appreciation for where this country is going with imports and imported foods," Doyle said.
Brackett, the FDA official, said the globalization of the food supply means the agency is going to have to be more creative and strategic in ensuring its safety. "I am not quite sure how we're going to do that yet," he said, "except to know that that's the direction that we're going to be heading."
本人认领此文。如在48小时内未能提交译文，其他战友可自由认领。
文章比较长，希望能按时翻译完。
Imported food rarely inspected
进口食品很少检测
By ANDREW BRIDGES
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
美联社记者
WASHINGTON -- Just 1.3 percent of imported fish, vegetables, fruit and other foods are inspected - yet those government inspections regularly reveal food unfit for human consumption.
华盛顿-进口鱼类，蔬菜，水果和其它食品中仅有1.3%进行了检测-而这些政府性检测的常规目的是检出不适合人类食用的食品。
Frozen catfish from China, beans from Belgium, jalapenos from Peru, blackberries from Guatemala, baked goods from Canada, India and the Philippines - the list of tainted food detained at the border by the Food and Drug Administration stretches on.
食品和药物管理局（FDA）在边境阻止入境的污染食品名单不断增加，包括中国的冷冻鲶鱼，保加利亚的大豆，秘鲁的墨西哥胡椒，危地马拉的黑莓，加拿大、印度和菲律宾的烘烤食品。
Add to that the contaminated Chinese wheat gluten that poisoned cats and dogs nationwide and led to a massive pet food recall, and you've got a real international pickle. Does the United States have the wherewithal to ensure the food it imports is safe?
不单单是使国内的猫狗中毒并导致大范围宠物食品召回的受污染的小麦麸子来自中国，你所食用的泡菜也是从国外进口的。（所以）美国需要专门的资金以确保进口食品是否安全吗？
Food safety experts say no.
食品安全专家们称没这个必要。
With only a minuscule percentage of shipments inspected, they say the nation is vulnerable to harm from abroad, where rules and regulations governing food production are often more lax than they are at home.
专家们称由于对进口食品的检测比例很小，而且（其他国家）管理出口食品生产的法律法规通常比其国内的（法律法规）松得多，所以美国更容易受到国外食品的危害。
"FDA doesn't have enough resources or control over this situation presently," said Mike Doyle, director of the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety, which works with industry to improve safety.
乔治亚大学食品安全中心正与有关行业协作以改善食品的安全性，其主任Mike Doyle说，“对于目前的局势，FDA并没有足够的财力或控制方法。”
Last month alone, FDA detained nearly 850 shipments of grains, fish, vegetables, nuts, spice, oils and other imported foods for issues ranging from filth to unsafe food coloring to contamination with pesticides to salmonella.
仅上个月，FDA就阻止了近850起食品入境，包括谷物，鱼类，蔬菜，坚果，香料，油类和其它进口食品，这些食品（出现的）问题包括从不安全的食物色素污染到杀灭沙门氏菌的杀虫剂污染。
And that's with just 1.3 percent of the imports inspected. As for the other 98.7 percent, it's not inspected, much less detained, and goes to feed the nation's growing appetite for imported foods.
这仅仅是对进口食品中的1.3%进行检测得到的结果。至于其它的98.7%，则根本没有检测，更不必说阻止入境了。这些进口食品满足了国人日益增长的对进口食品的喜好。
Each year, the average American eats about 260 pounds of imported foods, including processed, ready-to-eat products and single ingredients. Imports account for about 13 percent of the annual diet.
每个美国人每年约吃掉价值260磅的进口食品，包括经过处理的、即食性食品和未加工的食品。进口金额约占每年饮食消费总额的13%。
"Never before in history have we had the sort of system that we have now, meaning a globalization of the food supply," said Robert Brackett, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
FDA食品安全与实用营养中心主任Robert Brackett说：“历史上从来没有出现过我们现有的、表明食品供应全球化的这一系统。”
FDA inspections focus on foods known to be at risk for contamination, including fish, shellfish, fruit and vegetables. Food from countries or producers previously shown to be problematic also are flagged for a closer look.
FDA检测的重点集中在已知的高污染风险的食品上，包括鱼类，贝类，水果和蔬菜。对于有前科的国家或制造商生产的食品也重点检测。
Consider this list of Chinese products detained by the FDA just in the last month: frozen catfish tainted with illegal veterinary drugs, fresh ginger polluted with pesticides, melon seeds contaminated with a cancer-causing toxin and filthy dried dates.
以下是FDA仅上月阻止入境的中国食品名单：不符合规定的兽药污染的冷冻鲶鱼，杀虫剂污染的鲜姜，致癌毒素污染的瓜种不洁的干枣。
But even foods expected to be safe can harbor unexpected perils. Take wheat gluten: Grains and grain byproducts like it are rarely eaten raw and generally pose few health risks, since cooking kills bacteria and other pathogens.
即便预期的安全食品也隐藏着意料之外的危险。以小麦麸子为例：人们很少直接食用谷物和谷物类似的副产品，它们引起健康危险通常较小，原因是烹饪可以杀死（其中的）细菌和其它病原体。
Even so, the FDA can't say for sure whether the ingredient used in the pet foods was inspected after it arrived from China. And if the wheat gluten was, officials said, it wouldn't have been tested for melamine. Even though the chemical isn't allowed in food for pets or people, in any quantity, it previously wasn't believed toxic.
即便如此，FDA也不确定是否对从中国运抵后的小麦麸子中用于宠物食品的成分进行检测。有关官员称就是检测了这些小麦麸子，也不可能检测到三聚氰胺。任何含量的这一化学成分都不允许出现在宠物或人类食品中，但人们以前认为它是无毒的。
How did the melamine wind up in the wheat gluten? Investigators still don't know. Meanwhile, China is struggling to overhaul its food system and improve safety standards, but still faces major hurdles.
三聚氰胺是如何掺入小麦麸子的呢？调查者尚不清楚。同时，中国正在努力审查其食物系统并改进安全标准，但面临的障碍仍然很巨大。
Farmers use pesticides and chemical fertilizers to build produce yields and antibiotics are used on seafood and livestock. Heavy metals also can be introduced into the food chain by widespread industrial pollution.
农民使用杀虫剂和化肥以增加产量，对海产品和家畜则使用抗生素。重金属也可通过广泛的工业污染进入食物链。
Increasingly, those foods are sold in a now global marketplace.
目前这类食品的出售在全球市场上越来越常见。
While the European Union, Canada and Mexico still top the list of food exporters to the U.S., China is coming up fast. Since 1997, the value of Chinese food imports, including commodities like wheat gluten, has more than tripled, to $2.1 billion from $644 million, according to Agriculture Department statistics. It accounts for 3.3 percent of the total food the U.S. buys abroad.
虽然欧盟，加拿大和墨西哥在美国食品进口国名单中仍名列前茅，但中国正在迅速赶上。据农业部统计，1997年以来，包括农产品如麦麸在内的中国食品进口金额增加了3倍多，从6.44亿增加到了21亿，占美国全球采购的食品（份额）的3.3%。
For suspect imported products - and wheat gluten is now one of them - the FDA issues alerts to its inspectors. The FDA flags Chinese food and other imported products it regulates, like cosmetics, for that extra scrutiny more than any other country except Mexico.
FDA对怀疑（污染）的进口食品向其检查人员发出警报，现在麦麸就是其中之一。FDA标记出其管制的中国食品和其它进口产品，如化妆品，并进行仔细检查，比其他国家（墨西哥除外）要详细的多。
To safeguard its export business, China is looking at separating foods by their ultimate destination, domestic or foreign, according to Michiel Keyzer, director of the Center for World Food Studies at Amsterdam's Vrije Universiteit.
阿姆斯特丹自由大学全球食品研究中心主任Mickiel Keyzer说，为了保护其出口贸易，中国正根据目的地的不同（国内或国外）将食品划分开来。
U.S. government statistics suggest China still has a way to go.
（但）美国政府的统计提示中国仍有很长的路要走。
The FDA has been stopping Chinese food import shipments at the rate of about 200 per month this year. Shippers have the right to appeal the detentions, after which the government can order products returned or destroyed.
今年FDA阻止中国食品入境量为每月近200例。托运人可以就食品被阻止入境提起诉讼，然后政府可能将货物返还或销毁。
How do you know the origin of the food you eat? The 2002 Farm Act called for fish, fruit and vegetable imports to be labeled by country of origin, though implementation for the latter two foods has been delayed.
如何才能知道所食用的食品来自何处呢？2002年的农业法令要求进口的鱼类，水果和蔬菜必须标明来源的国家，尽管对后两种食物的执行已经延迟。
Meanwhile, the U.S. imports more and more, though the increase in value is partially due to the weaker dollar.
同时，虽然进口金额的增加部分原因是美元的贬值，但美国进口的食品（确实）越来越多。
All told, the U.S. is expected to import a record $70 billion in agricultural products for the 12 months ending in September, according to an Agriculture Department forecast. The value of those imports will be about double the nearly $36 billion purchased overseas in 1997.
据农业部预测，截止到9月份的12个月内美国农业产品预期的进口额为创纪录的700亿。这一进口金额为1997年海外购买额360亿的的两倍。
Contributing to that growth are the fresh fruits and vegetables imported during the offseason, when domestic production dwindles or ends.
（农业产品进口）增长的原因是过季时新鲜水果和蔬菜的进口，此时国内产量降低或已不再生产。
About one-quarter of our fruit, both fresh and frozen, is imported. For tree nuts, it's about half. And for fish and shellfish, more than two-thirds come from overseas.
进口水果在国内水果（包括新鲜和冷冻水果）的份额中约占四分之一。坚果约占一半。鱼类和贝类超过三分之二。
Even as the amount of imported food increased, the percentage of FDA inspections declined - from 1.8 percent in 2003 to 1.3 percent this year to an expected 1.1 percent next year.
虽然进口食品数量增加，但FDA的检测比例却在下降，从2003年的1.8%降至今年的1.3%，明年预期会降至1.1%
"Inspections have a very important role but they're not the solution. They are the verification," FDA commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach said.
FDA委员Andrew vonEschenbach说：“（对进口食品的）检测很重要，但不是解决办法，只是确保方法。”
The FDA and the USDA have adopted a "risk-based" inspection philosophy, focusing on specific foods, sources or producers that they believe represent the largest potential risk to the public's health.
FDA和USDA已采用一种“基于风险”的检测体系，检测重点是他们认为对公众健康潜在危害最大的特定食品，来源或生产商。
"The public at large is not at any increased risk," said Craig Henry, senior vice president and chief operating officer for scientific and regulatory affairs of the Grocery Manufacturers-Food Products Association, an industry group.
食品制造商-食品产品协会科学与调节事务的年长的副主席暨执行官员Craig Henry说：“大部分公众面临的风险并没有增加。”
Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group, countered that "risk-based" is just shorthand for "reduced resources."
公共利益科学中心（一个拥护团体）食品安全主任Caroline Smith DeWaal反对“基于风险”的体系只是财力减少的结果。
"Whenever they say 'risk-based approach,' it often means they don't have enough staff to actually do the job. They're doing triage. They're trying to hit what's most important to inspect but they're missing a lot," DeWaal said.
Dewaal说：“当他们谈论基于风险的方法时，通常意味着他们没有足够的人员做这一工作。他们只挑重点部分检测，但这样会漏掉许多。”
Groups lobbying to increase the FDA's budget say its spending on food safety has languished, despite the agency's outsized role in ensuring the safety of the nation's food supply.
游说增加FDA预算的团体声称虽然FDA在保证国家食品供给安全方面起了重大作用，但花在食品安全上的费用却在减少。
A recent Government Accountability Office report noted that most of the $1.7 billion the federal government allocates to food safety goes to the USDA, which is responsible for regulating about 20 percent of the food supply. The FDA, responsible for most of the other 80 percent, gets about 24 percent of the total spent on food safety.
近来一份政府责任署的报告指出联邦政府用于食品安全的17亿美金拨款中大多数拨给了USDA，这一部门负责管理约20%的食品供给。FDA负责剩余80%中的大多数，得到的拨款占食品安全总拨款的24%左右。
Unlike the FDA, the USDA requires foreign inspection certificates to accompany all products it regulates, which include meat and poultry. Those imports are then reinspected at each port of entry before they are allowed into this country - something that doesn't happen to all FDA-regulated imports.
与FDA不同的是，USDA要求它所管制的所有产品，包括肉类和家禽，都附有国外的检测证书。这些食品在各个入境口岸被允许进入前需重新检测，而FDA管制的进口食品则不需要这么做。
Under the Bioterrorism Act of 2002, anyone importing food into the United States is required to notify the FDA of the shipment before it arrives by land, air or sea. That allows the FDA to intercept contaminated products before they reach the marketplace, though agency officials acknowledge it doesn't always work that way.
受2002年生物恐怖袭击的影响，任何进口食物到美国的进口商在其进口食品通过陆运，空运或海运到达美国前都需要通知FDA。这样FDA就可以在这些食品进入市场前拦截污染的食品，尽管FDA官员称这种方式并不见得总是有效。
"We have better control than we did a few years ago but it is largely the responsibility of the importer to make sure those products are safe," said Stephen Sundlof, the FDA's top veterinarian.
FDA兽医专家称：“我们对进口食品的管理比前些年好得多。但确保食品安全在很大程度上是进口商的责任。”
ChemNutra Inc., the Las Vegas importer of the tainted wheat gluten, said it was "particularly troubled" that its supplier did not disclose it contained melamine.
进口受污染的小麦麸子的拉斯维加斯进口商ChemNutra公司声称其供应商没有告知小麦麸子中含有三聚氰胺使其陷入了大麻烦。
Doyle, of the University of Georgia, warned the contaminated pet food could be an unsavory taste of what's to come.
乔治亚大学的Doyle警告说污染的宠物食品味道很差。
"This is not the first and will not be the last but it certainly is a wakeup call for the public to get a better appreciation for where this country is going with imports and imported foods," Doyle said.
Doyle说：“食品污染不是第一次也不会是最后一次。但这的确是对公众的一次号召，使其更加感激国家对进口货物和食品的处理。”
Brackett, the FDA official, said the globalization of the food supply means the agency is going to have to be more creative and strategic in ensuring its safety. "I am not quite sure how we're going to do that yet," he said, "except to know that that's the direction that we're going to be heading."
FDA官员Brackett称，食品供给的全球化意味着FDA必须加强创造性和策略性以确保食品的安全。他说：“至今我也不十分确定我们将要采取何种方式，只知道这是我们前进的方向。”
编译：2759字
华盛顿-进口鱼类，蔬菜，水果和其它食品中仅有1.3%进行了检测-而这些政府性检测的常规目的是检出不适合人类食用的食品。食品和药物管理局（FDA）在边境阻止入境的污染食品名单不断增加，包括中国的冷冻鲶鱼，保加利亚的大豆，秘鲁的墨西哥胡椒，危地马拉的黑莓，加拿大、印度和菲律宾的烘烤食品。不单单是使国内的猫狗中毒并导致大范围宠物食品召回的受污染的小麦麸子来自中国，你所食用的泡菜也是从国外进口的。（所以）美国需要专门的资金以确保进口食品是否安全吗？食品安全专家们称没这个必要。专家们称由于对进口食品的检测比例很小，而且（其他国家）管理出口食品生产的法律法规通常比其国内的（法律法规）松得多，所以美国更容易受到国外食品的危害。乔治亚大学食品安全中心正与有关行业协作以改善食品的安全性，其主任Mike Doyle说，“对于目前的局势，FDA并没有足够的财力或控制方法。”
仅上个月，FDA就阻止了近850起食品入境，包括谷物，鱼类，蔬菜，坚果，香料，油类和其它进口食品，这些食品（出现的）问题包括从不安全的食物色素污染到杀灭沙门氏菌的杀虫剂污染。这仅仅是对进口食品中的1.3%进行检测得到的结果。至于其它的98.7%，则根本没有检测，更不必说阻止入境了。这些进口食品满足了国人日益增长的对进口食品的喜好。每个美国人每年约吃掉价值260磅的进口食品，包括经过处理的、即食性食品和未加工的食品。进口金额约占每年饮食消费总额的13%。
FDA食品安全与实用营养中心主任Robert Brackett说：“历史上从来没有出现过我们现有的、表明食品供应全球化的这一系统。”FDA检测的重点集中在已知的高污染风险的食品上，包括鱼类，贝类，水果和蔬菜。对于有前科的国家或制造商生产的食品也重点检测。以下是FDA仅上月阻止入境的中国食品名单：不符合规定的兽药污染的冷冻鲶鱼，杀虫剂污染的鲜姜，致癌毒素污染的瓜种不洁的干枣。即便预期的安全食品也隐藏着意料之外的危险。以小麦麸子为例：人们很少直接食用谷物和谷物类似的副产品，它们引起健康危险通常较小，原因是烹饪可以杀死（其中的）细菌和其它病原体。即便如此，FDA也不确定是否对从中国运抵后的小麦麸子中用于宠物食品的成分进行检测。有关官员称就是检测了这些小麦麸子，也不可能检测到三聚氰胺。任何含量的这一化学成分都不允许出现在宠物或人类食品中，但人们以前认为它是无毒的。三聚氰胺是如何掺入小麦麸子的呢？调查者尚不清楚。同时，中国正在努力审查其食物系统并改进安全标准，但面临的障碍仍然很巨大。农民使用杀虫剂和化肥以增加产量，对海产品和家畜则使用抗生素。重金属也可通过广泛的工业污染进入食物链。目前这类食品的出售在全球市场上越来越常见。
虽然欧盟，加拿大和墨西哥在美国食品进口国名单中仍名列前茅，但中国正在迅速赶上。据农业部统计，1997年以来，包括农产品如麦麸在内的中国食品进口金额增加了3倍多，从6.44亿增加到了21亿，占美国全球采购的食品（份额）的3.3%。FDA对怀疑（污染）的进口食品向其检查人员发出警报，现在麦麸就是其中之一。FDA标记出其管制的中国食品和其它进口产品，如化妆品，并进行仔细检查，比其他国家（墨西哥除外）要详细的多。阿姆斯特丹自由大学全球食品研究中心主任Mickiel Keyzer说，为了保护其出口贸易，中国正根据目的地的不同（国内或国外）将食品划分开来。（但）美国政府的统计提示中国仍有很长的路要走。今年FDA阻止中国食品入境量为每月近200例。托运人可以就食品被阻止入境提起诉讼，然后政府可能将货物返还或销毁。
如何才能知道所食用的食品来自何处呢？2002年的农业法令要求进口的鱼类，水果和蔬菜必须标明来源的国家，尽管对后两种食物的执行已经延迟。
同时，虽然进口金额的增加部分原因是美元的贬值，但美国进口的食品（确实）越来越多。据农业部预测，截止到9月份的12个月内美国农业产品预期的进口额为创纪录的700亿。这一进口金额为1997年海外购买额360亿的的两倍。（农业产品进口）增长的原因是过季时新鲜水果和蔬菜的进口，此时国内产量降低或已不再生产。进口水果在国内水果（包括新鲜和冷冻水果）的份额中约占四分之一。坚果约占一半。鱼类和贝类超过三分之二。虽然进口食品数量增加，但FDA的检测比例却在下降，从2003年的1.8%降至今年的1.3%，明年预期会降至1.1%。FDA委员Andrew vonEschenbach说：“（对进口食品的）检测很重要，但不是解决办法，只是确保方法。”FDA和USDA已采用一种“基于风险”的检测体系，检测重点是他们认为对公众健康潜在危害最大的特定食品，来源或生产商。食品制造商-食品产品协会科学与调节事务的年长的副主席暨执行官员Craig Henry说：“大部分公众面临的风险并没有增加。”公共利益科学中心（一个拥护团体）食品安全主任Caroline Smith DeWaal反对“基于风险”的体系只是财力减少的结果。Dewaal说：“当他们谈论基于风险的方法时，通常意味着他们没有足够的人员做这一工作。他们只挑重点部分检测，但这样会漏掉许多。”
游说增加FDA预算的团体声称虽然FDA在保证国家食品供给安全方面起了重大作用，但花在食品安全上的费用却在减少。近来一份政府责任署的报告指出联邦政府用于食品安全的17亿美金拨款中大多数拨给了USDA，这一部门负责管理约20%的食品供给。FDA负责剩余80%中的大多数，得到的拨款占食品安全总拨款的24%左右。与FDA不同的是，USDA要求它所管制的所有产品，包括肉类和家禽，都附有国外的检测证书。这些食品在各个入境口岸被允许进入前需重新检测，而FDA管制的进口食品则不需要这么做。
受2002年生物恐怖袭击的影响，任何进口食物到美国的进口商在其进口食品通过陆运，空运或海运到达美国前都需要通知FDA。这样FDA就可以在这些食品进入市场前拦截污染的食品，尽管FDA官员称这种方式并不见得总是有效。FDA兽医专家称：“我们对进口食品的管理比前些年好得多。但确保食品安全在很大程度上是进口商的责任。”进口受污染的小麦麸子的拉斯维加斯进口商ChemNutra公司声称其供应商没有告知小麦麸子中含有三聚氰胺使其陷入了大麻烦。乔治亚大学的Doyle警告说污染的宠物食品味道很差。Doyle说：“食品污染不是第一次也不会是最后一次。但这的确是对公众的一次号召，使其更加感激国家对进口货物和食品的处理。”
FDA官员Brackett称，食品供给的全球化意味着FDA必须加强创造性和策略性以确保食品的安全。他说：“至今我也不十分确定我们将要采取何种方式，只知道这是我们前进的方向。”
注意文中标点符号用法，如几处应为顿号误用为逗号。另，编译应抓住重点简明扼要讲清意思。
沙漠梭梭 wrote:
注意文中标点符号用法，如几处应为顿号误用为逗号。另，编译应抓住重点简明扼要讲清意思。
谢谢指教。
请问编译时抓住重点简明扼要的意思是编译时不必严格按照全文翻译，只需要将主要内容表达出来就可以了吗？
magiclyj wrote:
谢谢指教。
请问编译时抓住重点简明扼要的意思是编译时不必严格按照全文翻译，只需要将主要内容表达出来就可以了吗？
第一步翻译的时候最好能严格按照全文来。
第二步编译的时候，就去掉无关紧要的东东，调整句子的结构和顺序，合乎咱们国人的行文习惯，同时注意把主要内容表达出来就可以了。
原来是这样，谢谢楼上的。