There’s a reason Santa and Mom always use checklists. They work. It’s no different in the realm of food safety. Make a list, check it twice, have a backup plan. In many ways, that’s what the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and its accompanying rules are all about — preventing problems through a systematic, science-based approach. Food businesses along the supply chain, from the fields all the way to the grocery store shelves, must be in compliance with various aspects to the FSMA rules beginning this fall. A phase-in approach gives medium-sized and smaller operations more time. Signed into law in January 2011, the FSMA gives the Food and Drug Administration new tools in the quest for safer food through preventive efforts, rather than the reactive approach that had been the norm. Two key areas of the law include:
- Mandated inspection frequency: The FSMA establishes a mandated inspection frequency, based on risk, for food facilities. All high-risk domestic facilities had to be inspected within five years of enactment of FSMA and no less than every three years thereafter.
- Records access: FDA will have access to records, including industry food safety plans and the records firms will be required to keep documenting implementation of their plans.
For decades food businesses have faced government inspections from local, state and federal entities, spurring last-minute checklists for tidying up operations. In more recent times, third-party food safety audits, boosted by requirements from retailers and ingredient buyers, resulted in similar spot preparations for spot checks. Such inspections and audits provided a snapshot of an operation’s food safety status on a given day but did little to ensure the routine and repeated execution of food safety procedures. Part of the rational behind the FSMA’s accompanying rules, as described by FDA Deputy Administrator Mike Taylor is to help food producers, handlers and retailers develop and consistently apply policies and protocols so those snapshots of food safety become more like streaming video — uninterrupted processes and procedures that are part of every employee’s work every day.