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FDA Releases New Food Safety Rules


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that approximately 48 million people per year get sick from foodborne diseases and it seems like every day we hear about another disease outbreak caused by contaminated food.  Now, recent activity from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is aimed at preventing these illnesses.  On September 10, the FDA released long-anticipated new rules regarding food safety.  The rules are in response to the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), passed in 2011, which was the most extensive reform of food safety laws in over 70 years.  According to the FDA website, this law “aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it.”  

The two final rules released this week are the first of seven major rules the FDA is planning to release in order to implement the FSMA.  The new rules include the Current Good Manufacturing Practice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food: Final Rule and the Current Good Manufacturing Practice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Food for Animals: Final Rule.  Both rules require covered facilities to implement a food safety system and set requirements for written food safety plans.  The rules will be phased in over the next few years with compliance dates depending on the size of the business.  

For more information about the implementation of the FSMA, see the FDA website.

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