The US Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act 2002 (the Bioterrorism Act) requires domestic and foreign facilities that manufacture, process, pack or hold food for human or animal consumption in the United States to receive a FDA registration number by December 12, 2003. This act also requires that the FDA receives a prior notice of food imported into the United States so that fda certification is not refused. A fda prior notice is an advance notification to the FDA that food is being imported into the US. The prior notice includes information usually provided by foreign companies to the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) when they send food to the US. FDA will now use this data in advance of the arrival of the food product to assess and evaluate the information and decide whether to inspect the imported food.