SINCE MANY OF THE RECENT food safety snafus have centered on fresh produce, those products are given particular scrutiny by the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010.
Under the law, the Food and Drug Administration has one year to propose science-based minimum standards for the safe production and harvesting of produce, with final regulations to be issued one year after the comment period closes. Final rules would apply later to small farms. The regulations would particularly apply to produce associated with prior outbreaks of foodborne illness.
The Produce Marketing Association, Newark, Del., will be working with the FDA to help the agency “understand the real-world implications of the law,” said Kathy Means, PMA's vice president of government relations and public affairs. In the case of produce standards, the PMA wants to make sure that they are “risk-based,” she said.
The United Fresh Produce Association, Washington, will also work on promoting risk-based and science-based standards. “The law is very clear in directing FDA's attention to specific commodities based on risk,” said Robert Guenther, senior vice president, public policy, United Fresh, which recently published a white paper on the impact of the Food Safety Act on produce. “The FDA must be held to this congressional intent, rather than apply broad-brush, one-size-fits-all regulations.”
Both PMA and United Fresh opposed exemption given to small farms and businesses under the new law. Means pointed out that some retailers don't do business with small farmers that lack food safety plans. “So it may not be in a farmer's best interests to take the exemptions,” she said.
