The U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) new Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) rules and regulations 
have a direct impact on shippers of both human and pet foods. Therefore, transportation and logistics professionals should be in the know of these new rules and regulations that came into force in 2011. As with all things signed into law, people are slow into warming up until the repercussions hit home. Finally, the transportation industry is gearing up to make changes and comply with the new law, which is in fact not new anymore!
The FSMA is a cumulative effect of a long-term effort by the FDA to intersect regulations and preventive controls for human and animal foods, and produce. FSMA went into full effect in 2015 presenting several challenges for shippers and transporters dealing with food and produce.
Challenges for Shippers
FSMA puts added stress on companies to comply with an entirely new set of regulations and in the process affects the operations, productivity, profitability and supply chain of their shippers. Third-party logistics providers, and transportation and logistics companies are important components of the food supply chain that must comply with the FSMA laws.
In an article at SupplyChain247.Com, Patrick O’Connor, a partner with Kent & O’Connor, a Washington, D.C. based lobbying firm specializing in health and transportation, says “FSMA impacts preventive controls (how you store and handle food products), the foreign supplier verification program, sanitary food transport, and other key functions within the food distribution supply chain.”
The FSMA Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP) requires importers to take steps to ensure that imported human and animal food is as safe as what is produced domestically. Under the FSVP, the FDA will carry out sampling and testing, review of food safety records, and annual onsite audits of supplier’s facility. Importers covered by the FSVP must have a system in place to verify and ensure that foreign suppliers are producing food in a manner consistent with preventive controls or produce safety regulations.
Ensuring Compliance
Companies that grow, process, distribute and sell food are required to meet the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which means their supply chains must also meet the requirements. The FSMA will impact food producers, distributors, retailers and transportation and logistics companies that transport food. Attend this webinar Food Safety Modernization Act for Transportation and Logistics… by logistic and supply chain expert Joe Lynch on Wed, Jan 20, 2016 to understand the specific provisions of the FSMA that impacts transportation and 3rd party logistics providers and ensure compliance.
