Understanding Legal Research for Food Importers

As a food importer, you are constantly trying to balance what may be perceived as the conflicting aspects of maintaining your food standards and understanding food import regulations. Your foods are important to you, which is why you import them. But your foods may not be allowed by customs or an importing country, even if they are deemed healthy by your country’s standards. Bigfood Blue White wants to make sure that you aren’t bogged down by the conflict between importing your food and upholding its quality, which is why they extend an array of services committed to ensuring compliance with regulating agencies and assisting with food import issues.

What does this have to do with legal research? The answer is: Everything. Legal research and compliance go hand-in-hand, especially in the import business. You are in the business of food, however, this does not mean that you are exempt from following the rules and regulations set forth by various local, state, and federal agencies. The Internet plays a key role in assisting with legal research, but you need to know where to look. This is where the comprehensive resources of the ubalt law library come in. For example, accessing agricultural law journals to determine if the foods you are importing can be imported to the U.S. is crucial for food importers. You may need to go beyond the standard U.S. law to understand the laws of the country you are importing your goods. Those additional databases are what the ubalt law library offers.

Say you import meats into the United States. Since the U.S. has its own regulations on imported meat, it is critical to know what the current regulations are and how they may differ from the laws which already exist in your importing country. In addition to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations and the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) regulations, you must understand the import country’s equivalent regulation. To this end, agricultural law journals will offer you a wealth of information. Additionally, you will want to run through agribusiness law websites to come up to speed on any past conditioning of your meat products. For example, some countries have strict guidelines as it pertains to the types of meat that can be imported and the method of importation, such as shipping by land, sea, or air. Those agricultural law journals go one step further than generic law journals. Agricultural law journals allow you to capably address the wide range of agricultural issues, policies, and litigation. If you double your efforts with agribusiness law websites, you will find that these two resources strengthen your ability to understand your legal issues.