WASHINGTON, DC -- This week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a tool to assist food facilities with the development of food safety plans for compliance with regulations under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
The FDA
Food Safety Plan Builder (FSPB) is a free computer program that owners or operators of food facilities can download that walks through the process of creating a food safety plan. Food manufacturers are not required to use the FSPB tool to comply with FSMA rules and the FDA does not have access to any of the content or documents developed using the tool.
Food safety plans are required for compliance with FDA’s Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food regulation (20 CFR Part 117). Most facilities were required to comply with these rules starting in September 2016, with some smaller facilities given until September 2017 to comply. While the FSPB was primarily designed for use by small manufacturers with limited resources, any size manufacturer can opt to use it.
This and other FSMA compliance issues will be the focus of a 90-minute breakout session at the 2017 USA Rice Outlook Conference, December 10-12, in San Antonio, Texas. The session will include insights from seasoned food safety experts on rice facility compliance issues and a question and answer period where members can share FSMA compliance concerns.