Kindly take note that the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) will come to Malaysia for inspection mission on 19-30 July 2010 to ascertain compliance of aquaculture fishery products with USFDA requirements by Malaysian exporters to the United States (US) market. The purpose of the mission is to better understand and evaluate antibiotics and chemicals application regulatory system in aquaculture production in Malaysia, and the food safety controls that Malaysia has in place to ensure that fishery products exported to the US market are safe for human consumption.

The mission will involve the inspection of facilities along the entire aquaculture fishery product supply chain for the US market which include the fishery processing establishments, aquaculture farms, traders/middlemen, retail and wholesale suppliers of veterinary drugs and feed used in the farms.

All exporters of aquaculture fishery products to the US need to ensure compliance with the USFDA requirements all along the supply chain in order to maintain market access and gain new markets into the US. Malaysia’s total exports of fishery products to US valued at RM 439.9 million in 2009 and RM 680.9 million in 2008.

All exporters of fishery products, who have yet to register, are urged to immediately register with the Ministry of Health Malaysia (Food Safety and Quality Control Division). Registration can be made through the completion of a prescribed form I/EE/US-1-09 (Information on Export Establishment for Export of Fishery Products to United States of America) which can be downloaded from website: http://fsq.moh.gov.my. For further information, please contact Food Safety and Quality Division, Putrajaya or call 03-8883 3558/3505.

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