United Fresh Shares its Concerns Regarding the Food Safety Modernization Act
Late last week, the United Fresh Produce Association submitted comments and concerns developed by its member working groups to the FDA regarding two of its proposed rules to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). If finalized as proposed, United said the FDA’s regulations could severely impact the produce industry’s ability to deliver fresh produce to consumers, while not reducing risks or enhancing public health. The Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption (Produce Safety Rule) and the Current Good Manufacturing Practice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food (Preventive Controls Rule) were the two regulations under scrutiny.
According to a press release, United’s main concern with these FSMA regulations is that the FDA has taken a “One-Size-Fits-All” approach, which applies the same standards to all produce commodities, regardless of substantive differences in risks. Tom Stenzel, United CEO, tells AndNowUKnow, “We believe the FDA did a good job identifying the risk factors and safety measures inherent for managing food safety in all operations. However, fruit and vegetable commodities have significantly different risk profiles based on how they’re grown, so specific practices and accompanying metrics must be different as well.” In essence, despite identifying broad health and safety measures, the FDA has not taken into account the different risks and appropriate standards and practices across all fruits and vegetables.The solution, Stenzel says, is to still require growers to manage the risks identified in the Produce Safety Rule, but move all quantitative metrics into accompanying FDA Guidance documents. Guidance documents with direction for specific practices for different commodities could actually help enhance public health, without the needless burden and expense put on producers where it’s not needed.
Stenzel also tells us that the FDA’s proposed Preventive Controls rule makes a similar mistake, applying the same standards for complex food processing facilities to simple produce packing sheds and warehouses. “FDA needs to focus resources where they’re needed to reduce risk, not on applying rigid standards across every kind of facility,” he said.
United strongly urges growers to submit their concerns to the FDA by Friday, November 22, the cut-off date for comments. “These proposals were a good first step, but can be significantly enhanced to be more effective in protecting public health, while allowing produce growers and distributors to continue providing an abundance of healthy and affordable fresh produce to consumers,” says Stenzel.
Although United has asked the FDA to submit a second draft of the FSMA, it could be a multi-year effort before these changes are put into effect.
Stay tuned to AndNowUKnow for more news on the Food Modernization Safety Act.
United Fresh Produce Association
