From left, Rotary Club of Saipan Community Service Director Dr. Nelson Krum, President-elect Irene Holl, Club Service Director Mary Grace Bautista, President Wendell Posadas, CHCC Environmental Health Disease Prevention Operation Manager Aileen Pangelinan, CHCC Environmental Health Disease Prevention Director John Tagabuel, Rotary Club of Saipan Vice President Jessy Loomis and Treasurer Charles Cepeda.
AILEEN Pangelinan, the operational manager of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation-Environmental Health Disease Prevention, on Tuesday told members of the Saipan Rotary Club that a goal of CHCC-EHDP is to phase out the local food regulatory code in favor of the 2022 version of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s model food code.
Pangelinan said the local food code covers the “coding, manufacturing, packaging, distribution, and warehousing” of food products in the CNMI but isn’t as updated as the FDA’s food code.
“We want to be able to keep up with the changing science or changing practices,” Pangelinan said, adding that the FDA’s food code is updated every three years.
Multiple laws regulate foods and beverages in the CNMI. Two of them are P.L. 11-40, or the Pure Food, Drug and Cosmetic Device Act of 1998, and P.L. 12-48, or the Commonwealth Environmental Health and Sanitation Act of 2000. Both are listed on the CHCC EHDP website, alongside the “Rules and Regulations Governing the Manufacturing, Packing, Importation, Distribution, Warehousing or the Holding of Food for Human Consumption.”
As of late, Pangelinan said the CHCC-EHDP is building staff capacity and an implementation plan to adopt FDA regulations, but that adoption can’t happen until they first speak to industry stakeholders.
