Food Safety Modernization Act

Food Safety Modernization Act

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) The most sweeping reform of our food safety laws in more than 70 years, was signed into law by President Obama on January 4, 2011. It aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it.

Proposed Rule under FSMA for Preventive Controls for Human Food: Current Good Manufacturing Practice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food (FDA)

CA Dept. of Food and Agriculture will host two listening sessions on the FSMA.
Tulare - April 9th: Proposed Fresh Produce Rule from 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Woodland - April 11th: Proposed Fresh Produce Rule from 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. & Proposed Preventive Controls Rule 1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance http://www.iit.edu/ifsh/alliance/  
From the website:  Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA) is a broad-based public-private alliance consisting of key industry, academic and government stakeholders whose mission is to support safe food production by developing a nationwide core curriculum, training and outreach programs to assist companies producing  human and animal food in complying with the preventive controls regulations that will be part of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FMSA).

Proposed Rule under FSMA for Produce: Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption (FDA)

Produce Safety Alliance http://producesafetyalliance.cornell.edu/psa.html
From the website:  The PSA is developing a nationwide curriculum to increase understanding of the principles of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and to facilitate the implementation of food safety practices on fresh fruit and vegetable farms and in packinghouses.

Agricultural Water and Soil Amendment Framework Documents

The Western Center for Food Safety was asked by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to facilitate the development of research protocols for scientific studies that evaluate the persistence of foodborne pathogens in the environment and on the edible portions of fresh produce following:

• application of potentially contaminated untreated soil amendments of animal origin to land used to grow fresh produce or
• application of potentially contaminated agricultural water applied to the edible portion of the crop

The Agricultural Water and Soil Amendment framework documents were developed by two committees through a series of webinars, e-mail communication and a workshop that was held in Davis, CA in October 2011. Additional academic, government and industry food safety experts reviewed the draft documents prior to submission to the Journal of Food Protection.