Do foreign food ingredients need to do FSMA and HARPC?

Hi, we are a non-US food ingredients manufacturer, we are supplying oil and fats to our customers, who in turn further use it as ingredients for making cookies, potato chips, etc. So its not intended as ready to eat product.

We are certified for GFSI-FSSC 22k cert.

I'm curious to know, if we sells direct to US customers and the customers already in compliance with FSMA/HARPC requirement, do we need to be in compliance with FSMA/HARPC? and are we covered under FSVP?

or does this linked to the 'who' is the importer status? in this case we deliver all the way to the customers facility.

thanks!

CS

Hi, CS

If you are selling food into the US, then you must be in compliance with the HARPC/Preventive Controls for Human Foods regulations.  The Foreign Supplier Verification Program means that your US customer is responsible to make sure that they are importing from a supplier who is in compliance with the HARPC rule.

Thank you Fishlady! this clears things up a bit, so we know what to focus next.

on a side note, I have been checking up on my network in the area who has been inspected by the US-FDA recently and it seems GFSI certification are still well accepted for compliance with FSMA

so maybe it is still on 'education' mode for US-FDA?

I believe FDA is in the "educate ​while ​they regulate" phase.  If you are GFSI certified, you may have a lower chance of having FDA audit you, but it is not a guarantee.  And has been discussed here before, there are some differences between the GFSI requirements and the FDA requirements.