FSMA Certification
The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is a law which was drafted in the USA with the objective of reducing foodborne illnesses and deaths in USA. The FSMA was enacted in January 2011 and it was the first major reform of the food safety provisions to the Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) in over 70 years. FSMA provides the FDA a legislative mandate to require comprehensive, preventive control standards across the food supply chain, including those for the safe production, harvesting, packing and storage of raw agricultural commodities including agricultural produce. The addition of Hazard Analysis Risk based Preventive control (HARPC) along with Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) further improves the robustness of the food safety plans of the stakeholders.
The major changes brought in by the FSMA are with respect to the addition of preventive controls for food for humans and preventive control for food for animals, accredited third party certification, foreign supplier verification program (FSVP), produce safety, transportation and food defense.
FSMA also provides the FDA with a legislative mandate to require comprehensive, science based preventive controls across the food supply chain. The FSMA mandates the FDA to have an inspection frequency. It also empowers the FDA to ask for documents related to employee training, sanitation records and other documents including the food safety plan during audits.
Further, under the preventive control for food for humans, minimum safety standards for manufacturing, processing, packaging, and holding human food, employee training requirements, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) & HARPC.
FSMA was passed 2011 to address the fact that there are over 48 million illnesses per year in USA caused by food that could have been prevented with better manufacturing, packaging, distribution and holding practices across the food chain. Since food safety is the responsibility of all the stakeholders involved in the food chain, FSMA provides a comprehensive approach towards tackling the modern aspects of food safety.
Who does FSMA apply to?
The rules under FSMA applies to all businesses reporting under the FDA. It applies to all the domestic and foreign firms producing food for consumption in USA. All producers, including manufacturers, processors, packers and distributors must comply with the FSMA regulations. Importers importing food into USA are also required to comply with the rules under FSMA.
