Source: Chris Scott, MEATINGPLACE, 3/28/14

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has opened a new Web portal designed to give food manufacturers, drug manufacturers and the general public the opportunity to report safety issues with the food delivered to livestock nationwide.

The Safety Reporting Portal aims to “streamline the process of reporting product safety issues” to both the FDA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through both voluntary and mandatory reporting, according to the site.

It invites a wide swath of individuals and companies to submit reports if they encounter safety issues with a specific product or potential harmful effects they believe are related to the product. Veterinarians, health care providers, public health officials, consumers and researchers are also included on the list of people that the agencies want to hear from in the event of food safety problems stemming from animal food given to livestock.

The portal is part of a continuing effort by the FDA to establish more effective product safety channels to protect the food chain, according to the site.

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