FDA to implement food safety rules

The US Food and Drug Administration is set to implement new food safety legislation across the country.

FDA’s Seattle district compliance director Miriam Burbach said that this will see the phase two implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, Capital Press reported.

US President Barack Obama signed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) into law in January 2011. This is claimed to be the most sweeping reform of country’s food safety laws in more than 70 years.

FDA said this law will ensure the safety of US food supply by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it.

According to FDA Deputy Commissioner Mike Taylor, the agency will be focusing on three broad themes such as the farm-to-table approach, practical common standards, and holding imports to the same standards as domestically produced foods, Feedstuffs said.

As part of the process, companies will receive ‘regulatory incentives’ to comply with the rules, while farmers are expected to get at least one year to comply with the final regulations after they are published.

Taylor was quoted by Feedstuffs as saying: "Our operating assumption is that most people want to do the right thing. We’ll get a bigger public health bang for our buck if we’re working together with stakeholders on implementation.

"We really see the agriculture community as a primary constituency, a collaborative partner."

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Image: US President Obama signed the FSMA into law in January 2011. Photo: courtesy of The White House.