Supermarket Perimeter - September 2019 - 65

INSIDER
PACKAGING

SPOTLIGHT

Tamper-evident

LEGISLATION
by Andy Nelson

FOTOSTUDIOCOLOR24 - STOCK.ADOBE.COM

IMPLEMENTATION of the Food
Safety Modernization Act is
mostly in the rearview mirror,
but industry members are still
working on getting up to speed
with the new regulations.
Overall, FSMA's rollout at the
grocery retail and commissary/
central kitchen levels is going
well, says Hilary Thesmar, chief
food and product safety officer
and senior vice president of food
safety programs for the Arlington,
Virginia-based Food Marketing
Institute.
"FDA has been very thoughtful in how it's been rolled out,"
Thesmar says. "They knew it was
a heavy lift and they gave the
industry time to implement it."
Commissaries and central
kitchens have probably been
more impacted by FSMA than
retail stores themselves, Thesmar
says. Compliance with FSMA
depends on the type of facility,
and retailers, because they're
under local and state jurisdiction,
are exempt from much of the

law's reach. "There's little retail
has to do to comply with FSMA,
but distribution centers and
commissaries are under FSMA,"
Thesmar says. "If a facility is not
attached to retail, it's regulated
by FDA and does have to be regulated by FSMA."
The good news is, commissaries are for the most part up to
speed when it comes to compliance, she says. "From what
we're hearing, they're ready for
it and all is going well. We're not
hearing of violations, so that's
good news."
Because it applies to FDA regulated products, FSMA does not
apply to the vast majority of meat
and poultry products. But Sarah
Little, vice president of communications for the Washington,
D.C.-based North American Meat
Institute, says there are some
products containing meat and
poultry that are FDA regulated.
"Some Meat Institute members
are dual jurisdiction, regulated by
both the USDA and the FDA. The

Soups

transition has been fairly easy
for the meat industry, which
has been employing the Hazard
Analysis and Critical control
point system (HACCP) for over
20 years and are experienced
in food safety, traceability, and
sanitation."

Commissaries, suppliers
get breathing room to
adjust to adulteration rule
This summer, the last of the FSMA
regulations, FDA's Mitigation
Strategies to Protect Food
Against Intentional Adulteration
(Intentional Adulteration Rule),
had its compliance date, says
Rasma Zvaners, vice president of

regulatory and technical services
for the Washington, D.C.-based
American Bakers Association.
In April, meanwhile, the FDA
announced that it will begin
routine inspections to verify
compliance with its Intentional
Adulteration rule in March 2020.
This rule is designed to protect
the food supply from a person
or group of people who are
intentionally doing something
to the food to cause harm on a
large scale.
"FDA is still working to complete its guidance document
related to this ﬁnal rule," Zvaners
says. "ABA has commented on
the ﬁrst two portions of the FDA

Commissaries and suppliers will have until March to get up to speed
before the FDA begins verifying compliance with an adulteration rule.

www.supermarketperimeter.com

SEPTEMBER 2019 - 65
http://STOCK.ADOBE.COM http://www.supermarketperimeter.com
Supermarket Perimeter - September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Supermarket Perimeter - September 2019
