Food Protection Plan

The FDA and its Food Protection Plan have been getting some ink this week. Here is sampling:

Produce problem: drawn out salmonella probe spurs calls for food safety revamp


That story by MarketWatch explores what Consumers Union wants for produce traceability:

• labels or marks on produce packages and the product itself that show country, facility, date and time where the item was first processed or shipped.
• labels for each lot to track progress through the food distribution system

TK: Not only the date but the time as well? On the product itself? Why not include the shipping point salesman and the retail buyer as well?

The story also notes FDA will hold a public hearing in the fall about improving traceability and a meeting in August about the food protection plan.

Here is the FDA's take on their progress with the Food Protection Plan. The press release notes that the FDA is "moving forward" to establish a presence in China and is also discussing terms of an FDA presence in India.
Also noted wa sthe FDA work on the multi-year Tomato Safety Initiative. From the release:


As part of the initiative, FDA has led assessments of grower practices focusing on the factors believed to be associated with contamination of tomatoes with Salmonella. FDA has conducted assessments in Virginia and began assessments in Florida in April.
FDA is exploring current existing third-party certification programs.

TK: On the intervention front, the FDA notes it is working with the University of New Mexico State University to develop a "prototype system for improving electronic screening, using open-source intelligence, of imported products offered for entry into the U.S."

Also on tap from FDA, the agency said it will conduct an additional 20,000 food import field exams in fiscal year 2009 above 2008 levels.


In that context, here is a Produce Marketing Association has comments about the FDA's Food Protection Plan at this link:

http://www.pma.com/issues/FoodProtectionPlanComments.cfm.

From PMA's news release:

Writing for PMA, Vice President of Government Relations and Public Affairs Kathy Means called for FDA to establish commodity-specific, risk-based food safety regulations for certain fresh produce items and supported the agency’s proposal that it act as a third-party auditor accreditor. The agency’s Food Protection Plan’s principles include focusing on risk throughout the product’s life cycle, targeting resources to maximize risk reduction, attending to both unintentional and intentional contamination, and using science based technology. The agency requested public comment on its plans in a Federal Register notice published April 2; comments were due by July 31.