The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has submitted the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) sanitary transportation final rule to the Federal Register for publication, as required by the court. Documents submitted to the Federal Register can publish several days after they are submitted, with larger documents taking longer to process and display. “The FDA is committed to sharing information about the final rule and how businesses can comply as soon as we are able to do so,” the FDA noted. The agency will share updates as soon as the final rule is available via the Federal Register. For more information on the FSMA, visit http://www.fda.gov/fsma.
Editors Insight: The sanitary transportation rule could require significant changes in the way food is transported. The final rule is not currently available, but it has been finalized and the FDA says it will soon be available in the Federal Register.
The proposed version of the rule raised a lot of questions among food transporters. There were questions about the way the proposal addressed temperature monitoring during transport. There were questions about who in the supply chain was responsible for maintaining the standards, which included requirements for recordkeeping and for training carrier personnel. There were questions about who the rule defined as a “shipper.”
The good news is that the rule has been finalized. 4-1-16 By Elliot Maras
