The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law in 2011. FSMA is a food safety system that focuses on the prevention of food safety-related hazards occurring during the manufacturing of food rather than reacting to them when they occur. Overall, FSMA gives the FDA a new role in enforcement to improve compliance, prevention, and response time when a problem occurs; gives the FDA the ability to inspect imported foods; and builds partnerships between the FDA and state and local food regulatory authorities.
Within FSMA, three specific regulations that have been put into place are: 1) the preventive control plan for human food facilities 2) the preventive control plan for animal food facilities, and 3) the produce safety rule. The preventive control plans for human and animal food facilities focus on the development of a food safety plan for the facility in order to identify any reasonable or foreseeable hazards (biological, chemical, or physical) that could occur and affect the safety of the food. Similarly, the produce safety rule focuses on the minimum standards for growing, harvesting, packing, and holding produce to prevent or reduce food safety hazards. Human, animal, and produce-growing operations are required to meet these regulations if they meet the specified income threshold and attend an FDA recognized training to learn the requirements of the regulations, and how to develop a food safety plan for their facility. Because of this requirement, members of the Food Systems and Safety Team provide these trainings as well as individual guidance to food producers in the state (as well as across the country). Members of the team include: Dr. Kimberly Baker, Dr. Julie Northcutt, Chad Carter, Adair Hoover, and Rebecca Baxley. These three trainings are held regularly throughout the year, usually as in-person trainings. However, with the in-person restrictions related to COVID-19 these trainings have been temporarily held via Zoom because food producers and produce growers continue to need these trainings to ensure the safety of the food they produce and adherence to the regulations. To date the following courses have been taught by the team virtually with more scheduled in the next few months:
• April 14-15, 2020 – Preventive Control for Human Food course, 9 participants
• May 19-20, 2020 – Produce Grower Training, 23 participants
• May 27-28, 2020 – Produce Grower Training, 17 participants
• June 10-12, 2020 – Preventive Control for Animal Food course, 12 participants
Submitted by: Dr. Kimberly Baker, Food Systems and Safety Program Team Director
