Summing It Up
United Fresh has produced a white paper that highlights key elements of the Food Safety Modernization Act.
In the weeks and months leading up to the Congressional vote on the Food Safety Modernization Act, United Fresh Produce Association was very clear in both its support of comprehensive, science-based food safety standards, as well as its opposition
to exemptions for specific parts of the industry.
“There is no doubt the food safety bill contains a number of important provisions that we have long supported, including implementation of preventive controls for production and processing of specific fruits and vegetables when shown necessary by a risk-based, scientific analysis by FDA,” said United Fresh senior vice president Robert Guenther. “Yet, the Tester amendment weakens public health protection by exempting some producers and processors based only on the size of their business, their geographic location, or to whom they sell their products.”
Educating Members
Now that the bill has passed, United is working hard to educate its membership, as well as non-United members involved in fruit and vegetable production, on how the bill will impact the produce industry. United Fresh recently published a “Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010” white paper, available on the group’s website, that addresses the following topics:
• New produce safety standards;
• Flexibility for small farms (the white paper does note that exemptions for small farms can be withdrawn if FDA has reason to believe food from a particular producer may be contaminated);
• Impacts on processing and wholesale facilities, including preventive controls;
• Impacts on produce importers, including third-party certification and foreign supplier safety assurance;
• FDA mandatory recall authority;
• Traceability provisions;
• A reference chart, broken down by industry sector, covering new regulations and what they mean; and
• A timeline for regulatory implementation.
