Inspections of small businesses under the FSMA Intentional Adulteration Rule to begin March 2021
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that routine inspections of small businesses to verify compliance with the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act’s (FSMA) Intentional Adulteration (IA) rule will begin in March 2021.
The FSMA IA rule is designed to address hazards that may be intentionally introduced to foods, including by acts of terrorism, with the intent to cause wide scale public health harm. Food facilities covered by the rule are required to develop and implement a food defense plan that identifies vulnerabilities and puts in place mitigation strategies to address those vulnerabilities. The rule was finalized in 2016 and compliance dates are being phased in depending on business size. The compliance date for small businesses (those with fewer than 500 employees) is July 27, 2020.