The Food Safety Modernization Act Is Everybody’s Business
With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) release of the first of its Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) proposed rules on produce safety and preventive controls, we begin what will be a multiple-year process to develop final regulations. While it will be easy during this time to get lost in legislative language, metrics and details, we must always maintain sight of why we’re doing this. Food safety is about people. When our systems don’t work, people get sick.
Protecting people’s health through prevention of foodborne illness requires smart regulation and also demands a food safety-minded business culture. A food safety culture starts at the top with the person in charge and infuses every staff level and job function. It’s driven by continuous improvement, constantly in the mode of updating and reevaluating to stay ahead of food safety’s dynamic, complex and ever-changing nature. Add to these food safety culture criteria an informed understanding not only of the food safety practices for your place in the supply chain, but also of those links before and after you. That’s why it’s important to understand what’s being presented in FSMA’s proposed rules, not just for you but for each link of the supply chain.