FDA releases first FSMA food safety standards

FDA has released two of five food safety standards aimed at preventing foodborne illness for 120 days of public comment. The standards, part of 2011’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), focus on hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls for human food, and on growing, harvesting, packing and distributing produce for human consumption. FDA says the rules follow extensive outreach to “the produce industry, the consumer community, other government agencies and the international community.” The first rule would require manufacturers of food intended for sale in the US to develop a formal plan for preventing their products from causing foodborne illness. FDA has proposed that most businesses must be in compliance within a year of the rule going into effect, with exceptions for small and very small businesses. The second rule proposes enforceable safety standards for the production and harvesting of produce on farms, with larger farms coming into compliance within 26 months. Read more about the new standards here.