FDA--NEW RULES FOR FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN AND RISK REDUCTION

Food Facilities Must Act to Prevent Intentional Adulteration Under FDA Rule

Friday, May 27, 2016

Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg Trade Report

The Food and Drug Administration has finalized a new food safety rule that will require food businesses in the United States and abroad to take steps to prevent intentional adulteration of the food supply. This rule, which incorporates several major revisions from the FDA’s proposal to provide for greater flexibility and clarity, marks the last of the seven major rules implementing the core of the Food Safety Modernization Act to be completed.
For the first time, domestic and foreign food facilities that manufacture, process, pack or hold food and are required to register as food facilities (with some exceptions) will be required to prepare and implement a written food defense plan that assesses significant vulnerabilities to deliberate contamination where the intent is to cause wide-scale harm to public health. These facilities will also have to identify and implement strategies to minimize or prevent these vulnerabilities and establish and implement food defense monitoring procedures, corrective actions and verification activities.
This rule is effective as of July 26 but compliance will not be required until July 26, 2019, for facilities other than small businesses and July 26, 2020, for small businesses.