Food Safety Modernization Act FSMA, by FDA
Find out how the new food traceability rule proposed by the FDA will work for companies that export food.
Organizations such as the FDA-SENASICA-Cofepris, the Alliance for Food Safety (Known by its acronym FSP, which means Food Safety Program), established a food declaration in September 2020, with US organizations.
This food declaration has been worked on since 2014 in conjunction with the aforementioned organizations; contributing to the improvement of fresh agricultural products and where, through the intervention of the FSP, it results in protecting public health through the prevention of diseases transmitted by food for human consumption.
This collaborative work allows the use of modern approaches and preventive practices oriented on technical and scientific evidence where health and verification measures are monitored.
It is known that the FSP is aligned with FDA initiatives and its goals must respond to the “New Era for Smarter Food Safety” program. Where its central elements of traceability must be supported by technology, intelligent tools for prevention and response to outbreaks, new modernized business models and the strengthening of the culture of food safety. Likewise, the FSP allows for an easy exchange of data information with Mexico, which will contribute to strengthening and modernizing the analysis and prediction capacity with a focus on prevention and timely response to outbreaks between Mexico and the United States.
We present the news that this alliance brings for Food Safety
These are the new approaches and areas of opportunity of the FSP, where through four focus groups on priority topics in the areas agreed upon between the FDA, SENASICA, Cofepris:
- The scope of this Alliance has expanded beyond fresh agricultural products, where it includes the safety of all foods for human consumption.
- This Alliance becomes a renewal aimed at constant dialogue through emerging technologies, such as complex genome sequencing (WGS).
- The FDA and SENASICA, together with Cofepris, have emphasized the common interest of collaborating with academia, industry trade associations, and consumer groups.
That said, in November 2022, the FDA released the final rule regarding requirements for additional traceability records on certain foods (Food Traceability Final Rule). This rule is a key component of the FDA’s “New Era of Smarter Food Safety” Plan and implements a section of interest, developed by the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Such requirements will contribute to faster identification and removal from the market of potentially contaminated foods, resulting in fewer food-caused illnesses or deaths.
This rule requires that persons or companies that manufacture, process, package, or store food in the FTL maintain records containing key data elements (KDE) associated with critical monitoring events (CTE) specific and add information to the FDA within 24 hours or within a reasonable time that the FDA has agreed upon.
KDES The key to being with the new traceability rule To understand more clearly what was mentioned above, we explain in detail in the following
Figure 1
Figure 1. How the Food Traceability Rule works
The Food Traceability Rule requires companies to hold and ship according to the type of supply chain activities they perform with respect to the FTL food list, starting from its harvest through its production of the food, processing, distribution and receipt within retail or other point of service. Therefore, one of the central requirements proposed by this rule is to assign, record and exchange traceability codes for foods that are within the Food Traceability List (FTL), as well as linking of these lot codes with other information that identifies the food as it moves through the supply chain.
Therefore, each process found within the supply chain must have the mandatory KDE so that companies can comply with this rule and which are mentioned below:
- Harvest Cooling (before starting packaging)
- Initial packaging (RAC)
- First baseman catcher
- Transport
- Reception
- Transformation
- Traceability Plan
The last KDE that the FDA mentions is a traceability plan, this must be carried out in writing and in detail where the traceability technologies and procedures are described to respond to the regulated standards.
4 reasons to invest in Traceit automated digital traceability.
Through our intelligent code system, you will be able to have full control of all the information involved in the supply chain of your products, complying with the new food safety rule by the FDA.
2. Traceit Automates your company’s logistics processes, streamlining shipping and receiving operations. Eliminating human errors when coding raw materials, products and packaging. It allows you to track any product, packaging, batch and supply chain from farm to table in minutes.
3. Traceit provides the supply chain, transporters and logistics operators inside and outside the country with KDE (FDA) information on the goods and traceability certificates, and in cases of accident or recall it sends alerts, controlling collateral damage with minimal impact.
4. Traceit allows you to track all logistics operations carried out inside and outside your company, from anywhere, knowing the complete trajectory of your merchandise; It also provides detailed information on supplies, batches, boxes and product packaging, generating productivity reports in real time.
Learn more about the new FSMA regulations that will come into force in the United States as of January 1, 2023 learn more
If you want to learn more about the benefits of our technology, visit traceit.com.mx or contact us: 33 1044 2332
