Food manufacturing businesses must comply with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)—the biggest food safety reform in seven decades, which affects the way our foods are grown, harvested and processed. Signed into law in January 2011, FSMA has shifted the U.S.’s focus from responding to foodborne illnesses to preventing them.
The FDA finalized seven major rules to implement FSMA (see sidebar), which recognizes that ensuring the safety of the food supply is a shared responsibility among many different points in the global supply chain for both human and animal food. The FSMA rules offer clear, specific actions to take at each of these points to prevent contamination. These rules were rolled out over time to ensure that all parts of the supply chain would be able to implement them in time for rule enforcement, most of which are already being enforced.