| Soleron said: It's protectionism. |
No, it isn't. Every country has food standards, the US is not alone.
Imported food is already require to meet certain standards. How food is fertilized, the levels of certain chemicals or the presence of them, and the way food packaging is labeled. There are as well certain foods that are outright banned in the US. Looking at you Haggis! Ok, not literally Haggis but sheep stomach is not permitted for consumption in the US.
What would be nice. If the world applied all the same standards across the board. That is in terms of pesticides, fertilizers, chemical levels, and food labeling. Our food labeling, for instance, is much more informative about the nutrition than it is in other countries. Well, informative if you know what the heck you're reading.
For instance, we break down fats into different types of fats. If you have a food item (a sandwich) that has a baguette, ham, cheese, lettuce, and tomato, the ingredients for the baguette, ham, and cheese all must be listed as well e.g. ham(ingredients), baguette(ingredients). The challenge is, especially between the US and Europe, instances where we allow certain levels of chemicals and the EU doesn't or vice versa. The whole Mad Cow Disease thing, for instance, became an issue in the UK because they allowed cow feed to include cow brain matter. In the US that isn't allowed.
