FDA Proposes New Food Defense Rule to Tackle Intentional Adulteration
As required by the bipartisan Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today proposed a rule that would require the largest food businesses in the U.S. and abroad to take steps to prevent facilities from being the target of intentional attempts to contaminate the food supply. The FDA will hold a public meeting on the proposed rule on Feb. 20, 2014, in College Park, MD (details below).
Under the Focused Mitigation Strategies to Protect Food Against Intentional Adulteration Proposed Rule, a food facility would be required to have a written food defense plan that addresses significant vulnerabilities in its food production process. Facilities then would have to identify and implement strategies to address these vulnerabilities, establish monitoring procedures and corrective actions, verify that the system is working, ensure that personnel assigned to the vulnerable areas receive appropriate training and maintain certain records.