Next Step - A New Agency with Increased Powers?
It appears that this has been proposed before most recently in 2007, but a bill has been introduced to set up a new Food Safety Administration independent of the FDA and USDA. It will build on FSMA and probably add more requirements. Those proposing it are hoping that it will gain bipartisan backing because it will consolidate the bureaucracy.
http://www.reuters.c...N0L12I720150128
Interesting that a foreign news service is picking this up before the domestic ones. Maybe that's because the import regulations are going to be tightened up.
Is this a good thing, or a bad thing for our industry?
1, 2, 3, go!
Martha
Call me skeptical. nothing seems bipartisan anymore. :notworking:
Have to agree with Setanta on this one. It should be a good thing, but when the government is involved......
Build on FMSA??
How can you build onto something that hasn't even been officially issued?
Edit** Setanta - your image couldn't be more appropriate for this
Build on FMSA??
How can you build onto something that hasn't even been officially issued yet?
IRI, actually the law has been in force since 2011, but the supporting regulations are not in place. Because the FDA was dragging its heels on the regs, they were sued by the Center for Food Safety. The courts are overseeing the agreement between the parties. So there was a "consent decree", an agreement that certain regs would be in place by certain times. I think that some were already promulgated, but the Human Food Safety and the Foreign Supplier Verification Programs were delayed. The consent decree requires the Human Food to go into effect by 8/31/15 and the FSVP by 10/31/15. The courts oversee these deadlines, and the FDA is frantically trying to get the regs done and also keep the industry from staging an all out rebellion because they don't want to change rapidly.
http://www.lexology....7c-2527e2020657
So the basics of FSMA are in a law, like giving the FDA the power of mandatory recalls and requiring a hazard based food safety plan, but it appears that some of the requirements in the new bill are more strict than what is in FSMA.
This is going to be interesting, if this passes before the FSMA regs are finished. The confusion will persist for a little time about who's in charge. And this will be a new day for an industry that is used to dealing with an agency that basically let them make safe food voluntarily. If the new powers stick, then it will be a change for all of us. Maybe. With the Feds, you never know.
But it will be fun to watch, from a regulatory standpoint.
Martha
It appears that the Obama Administration is also proposing a combined agency in the budget. An analysis of the proposal.
http://www.foodnavig...8ZAMMY5U0Ua5eis
My guess is that if this were a merging of parts of the FDA, then FSMA could progress as it already is, with the new agency administering the regulations.
Martha
Thanks for the reading material/links and initial analysis and commentary. It's fascinating for someone like me who's new to all of this.
Jeff
I've often complained that the hard work that is done by food safety professionals is often unknown by the general public and that the only things they know about are the bad actors who cause most of the major food safety incidents we hear about.
Thinking back before I worked in a food quality lab and really until I was a quality coordinator I didn't know much about any of it either. And that's what leads to gigantic screw ups like the federal government is about to try to make with this magic new department they want to make and throw money at like it grows on trees.
But that's my opinion.
Call me skeptical. nothing seems bipartisan anymore. :notworking:
The part of the story I loved most was how they said they wanted it to be bipartisan but all 11 of the signers were from one party. I'm not worried nothing is bipartisan anymore as much as I'm worried that they even know what bipartisan means anymore.
Call me skeptical. nothing seems bipartisan anymore. :notworking:
The part of the story I loved most was how they said they wanted it to be bipartisan but all 11 of the signers were from one party. I'm not worried nothing is bipartisan anymore as much as I'm worried that they even know what bipartisan means anymore.
Now there is a dangerous can of worms to open.....
I think most would agree with the lack of bi-partisanship.