In compliance with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s act on October last, requiring domestic and foreign facilities to register with it, nearly half of the estimated number of food facilities has registered. According to the compliance information published by the FDA, as on May 19, 2004, there were 202,024 registrations, out of which 105,193 were foreign and 96,831 domestic. The FDA had put the total number of food facilities requiring registration approximately at 420,000. Earlier in October 2003, the FDA had released the rules relating to registration of food facilities and prior notice of imported food shipments as a part of the Bioterrorisnm Act 2002. Accordingly, domestic facilities may deserve regulatory action under such circumstances that include

continuing failure to register and contaminated food supply posing either a threat of serious adverse healthy consequences or death to humans or animals Apart from this the FDA has stated that a failure to register would be considered as an additional charge in an enforcement action subject to other statutory violations. Similarly, the FDA would enforce the registration on the foreign facilities through prior notice that would require the registration number of both the foreign manufacturer and the shipper. Under the prior notice regulation, prior notice of imported foods must be received and confirmed electronically by the FDA not more than five days before its arrival at the US port. And among the foreign countries registered, Japan has topped in number with 14,074 registrations followed by China with 8,557 registrations.