Professor Dima Faour-Klingbeil, Research Fellow, School of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth, delivered the lecture: An overview of the Food and Drug Administration Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and its implications for food exporters (October 10) at FAFS.
Foodborne disease is a significant burden worldwide. In the United States, it is estimated that 48 million people are sickened, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die each year from contaminated food or beverages. Prompted by the increasing prevalence of imports, high-profile food outbreaks, food fraud, and emerging hazards, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act was signed into law in 2011. FSMA was the first historical reform to the legislative landscape of the food and beverage industry in over 70 years, and made fundamental changes in U.S. food laws by shifting the focus of food safety from a reactive to a preventive approach and by giving explicit authority and a broader prevention mandate to protect consumer health. Instead of relying only on port-of-entry inspection, FSMA emphasizes key regulations that span the food supply chain. Among other modifications, it imposes new responsibilities on food importers to verify that their foreign suppliers of food for human and animal consumption meet applicable FDA safety standards to ensure the safety of food imported into the U.S.
