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The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the most sweeping reform of our food safety laws in more than 70 years, was signed into law by President Obama on January 4, 2011. It aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it. The law provides FDA with new enforcement authorities designed to achieve higher rates of compliance with prevention- and risk-based food safety standards and to better respond to and contain problems when they do occur.
To cover the entire food system, FSMA has divided the covered areas into the following 7 rules (now final):
To cover the entire food system, FSMA has divided the covered areas into the following 7 rules (now final):
- Preventive Controls for Human Food
- Establish Current Good Manufacturing Practice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Food for Animals
- Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption
- Foreign Supplier Verification Programs (FSVP) for Importers of Food for Humans and Animals
- Mitigation Strategies to Protect Food Against Intentional Adulteration
- Accredited Third-Party Certification
- Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food (STAHF)
New Requirements:
- Vehicles and transportation equipment: The design and maintenance of vehicles and transportation equipment to ensure that it does not cause the food that it transports to become contaminated.
- Transportation operations: The measures taken during transportation to ensure food is not contaminated, such as adequate temperature controls and separation of food from non-food items in the same load. Proper food temperature control is mandatory.
- Information exchange: Procedures for exchange of information about prior cargos, cleaning of transportation equipment, and temperature control between the shipper, carrier, and receiver, as appropriate to the situation. For example, a carrier transporting bulk liquid non-dairy foods would want to ensure that vehicles that have previously hauled milk will not introduce allergens into non-dairy foods through cross contact.
- Training: Training of carrier personnel in sanitary transportation practices and documentation of the training.
- Records: Maintenance of written procedures and records by carriers and shippers related to transportation equipment cleaning, prior cargos, and temperature control.
- Waivers: Procedures by which the FDA will waive any of these requirements if it determines that the waiver will not result in the transportation of food under conditions that would be unsafe for human or animal health and that it is in the public interest.
Resources
"U.S. Food and Drug Administration." FSMA Proposed Rule on Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food. http://www.fda.gov/food/guidanceregulation/fsma/ucm383763.htm N.p., n.d. Web. 27 June 2015.
Wilson, Charles E. "Be Proactive." Refrigerated Transporter May 2015: 17-18. Web.
"U.S. Food and Drug Administration." FSMA Proposed Rule on Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food. http://www.fda.gov/food/guidanceregulation/fsma/ucm383763.htm N.p., n.d. Web. 27 June 2015.
Wilson, Charles E. "Be Proactive." Refrigerated Transporter May 2015: 17-18. Web.