Food Safety Draft Rules Released

Published: January 1, 2013

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its long awaited draft rule for the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) on January 4th. Included with this newsletter is an insert, which consists of the following:

• A front page article providing some clarificaion on how the DRAFT rules would likely affect growers supplying produce auctions and the facilities themselves.
• A four page summary of the draft rules, published by the FDA on their web site.

The draft rule is subject to change. The produce safety rule is being issued as a proposed rule so that industry, other stakeholders and the general public have an opportunity to review and comment on what is written. Farmers are encouraged to comment on these proposed rules over the coming 4 months (120 days). The FDA is mandated to hold 3 public meetings during the comment period at locations across the nation. Fortunately the FDA is already in communication with growers for produce auctions, represented by the Food Safety Team. (See "Interested in Getting Started with Farm Food Safety, but not ready for GAPs yet?" article.)