Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made some progress toward implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) by issuing two new proposed food safety rules. Specifically, the agency published proposed rules to establish standards for (1) growing, harvesting, packing, and holding of produce for human consumption (the “Produce Safety Rule”) and for (2) current good manufacturing practice and hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls for human food (the “Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule”).
These two proposed rules are just the first step for establishing the framework for the modern food safety system called for by FSMA. Eventually, the FDA intends to release additional proposed rules addressing importer foreign supplier verification, preventive controls for animal food, and accreditation of third party auditors. A helpful overview of the proposed Produce Safety Rule and the Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule can be found here.
The FDA is currently in the process of soliciting comments on the proposed rules from industry stakeholders. The public may offer comments to the proposed rules over the course of the next several weeks. To facilitate that process FDA is planning to host two additional public meetings in Chicago, IL and Portland, OR in March. These meetings are the second and third in a series of public meetings announced in the January 31, 2013 Federal Register Notice and on FDA’s FSMA website. The first public meeting will be held February 28-March 1, 2013, at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC.
Stakeholders will be permitted to submit oral comments during the public meetings. In addition, the meetings aim to inform the public about the FDA rulemaking process (including how to submit comments, data and other information to the rulemaking dockets), and respond to questions about the proposed rules.
In Chicago, the forum will be held on March 11-12, 2013 at The Westin on Michigan Avenue. The meeting in Portland will take place on March 27-28, 2013 at Crown Plaza Portland Downtown Convention Center. To register for either event visit FDA’s registration page: http://ppleventreg.com/FDA-FoodSafety-IL-OR/.