On August 10, the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) received a letter from Dr. Michael Taylor (click here here to view the letter), Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Deputy Commissioner for Foods, which states that FDA expects to enforce compliance with the new food safety requirements contained within the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in timeframes that will be described in the final rules to be issued by the agency.
Dr. Taylor issued the letter in response to a June 20 request made jointly by the NGFA, American Feed Industry Association and National Oilseed Processors Association that asked for clarification concerning FDA's plans regarding enforcement actions for the preventive controls and foreign supplier verification provisions of FSMA. As specified within FSMA, the preventive control provisions were to be effective on July 3, 2012, and the foreign supplier verification provisions have a pending effective date of Jan. 3, 2013.
The response confirms that FDA does not plan to enforce compliance with the preventive controls and foreign supplier verification sections of FSMA until after the final regulations are issued and specified compliance timeframes have elapsed. As detailed in an article from the Aug. 9 edition of the NGFA Newsletter, the proposed rules for the preventive control and foreign supplier verification provisions currently remain under review by the White House Office of Management and Budget, and the approval timeframe for publishing is unknown. In addition, FDA has stated that once final regulations are published a phase-in time period for facilities to implement practices to comply with the regulations will be provided, which likely will range between one to two years for most facilities, depending upon company size.