FDA sets new safety rules for food processors
Maine farmers and food producers could be impacted by two new rules, issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under its Food Safety Modernization Act, that set new safety requirements for facilities that manufacture, process, pack or hold human food and animal food, according to an FDA statement.
”Preventive Controls for Human Food” establishes requirements for a written food safety plan for covered facilities. These include: hazard identification, preventive measures to ensure hazards will be minimized or prevented, oversight of preventive controls, procedures to ensure preventive controls are consistently performed, timely corrective actions and verification of corrective activities.
The final rule expands the definition of “farm” to include packing or holding raw agricultural commodities, such as fresh produce, that are grown on a farm under a different ownership; and provides a definition of secondary farming activity, such as packing and holding raw product, not located on the primary production farm. And it sets new hazard prevention controls for the overall supply chain.
Compliance for some businesses begins in September 2016 and deadlines are staggered thereafter.
“Preventive Controls for Animal Food” finalizes baseline “current good manufacturing practices,” or CGMPs, for producing safe animal food. Processors already implementing human food safety requirements, such as brewers, do not need to implement additional preventive controls when supplying a byproduct such as wet spent grains or fruit or vegetable peels for animal food, except to prevent physical and chemical contamination when holding and distributing the byproduct.
However, further processing a byproduct for use as animal food could trigger the updated CGMPs, which are similar to human food safety requirements in terms of hazard identification, preventive controls, monitoring, verification, and supply-chain mandates. Businesses have a staggered number of years to comply with the new rule.
On both rules, the FDA is developing guidance documents for businesses.
The FDA will also hold a public meeting on the final rules Oct. 20 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile inChicago. More accessible to Maine businesses, the agency will also host three educational webinars on Sept. 15, 16, and 17.
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