FDA guidance docs explain certain exemptions from FSMA
If you are a food producer covered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) regulations for low-acid canned foods, juice HACCP, or seafood HACCP, how do the rules that implement the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) affect you?
If you are a food producer covered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) regulations for low-acid canned foods, juice HACCP, or seafood HACCP, how do the rules that implement the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) affect you? To answer this question, the FDA has published three guidance documents to help producers of food commodities covered by these earlier regulations understand which parts of the FSMA rules apply to them and how the FSMA rules may affect their operations.
The FDA’s HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) and low-acid canned foods (LACF) regulations were in place long before the FSMA rules became final. The FDA’s HACCP regulations for juice and seafood processors require processors to perform a hazard analysis and develop a HACCP plan to address biological, chemical, and physical hazards; monitor the conditions and practices; and make corrections as needed. The FDA’s LACF regulation addresses biological hazards such as Clostridium botulinum unique to such foods, which include canned vegetables.
The FSMA recognizes that the FDA has previously established regulations that are specific to seafood, juice, and LACF, and so some exemptions have been made in the FSMA rules for these products. However, there are still some requirements in the FSMA regulations that apply to processors of the seafood, juice, and LACF products.
The new guidance documents aim to help industry identify these exemptions and understand the juice, seafood, and LACF regulations in connection with some of the new FSMA requirements.