Speaking with FoodNavigator-USA’s Stephen Daniells at the recent IFT Annual Meeting and Expo, Pontiakos said that the companies sourcing from China need to “proceed with extreme caution. This is an area of the world that is providing a tremendous amount of raw material globally in the food and vitamin markets, and companies need to go in recognizing that they have to have an exceptional amount of vigilance.”
On the topic of collaboration between the US Food and Drug Administration and its Chinese counterpart, Pontiakos said that the collaboration has been great.
“FDA has done a great job of transferring knowledge, of what needs to be happen to get product in, that aspect has been very good.
“Companies buying in any region have to take responsibility for their surveillance and change of custody.”