FDA’s Produce Safety Regulations – At a Glance...LUNCH & LEARN WEBINAR SERIES FDA’s...

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LUNCH & LEARN WEBINAR SERIES

FDA’s Produce Safety Regulations – At a Glance

February 19th, 2020

WEBINAR LOGISTICS

• Everyone is muted.

• Questions will be addressed during the Q&A session at the end of the presentation.

• This presentation is being recorded.

• The recording/slides will be available to WG members only.

• Adjourn (60 minutes).

• There will be 3 important survey questions at the conclusion of this webinar. Your responses will be appreciated.

WEBINAR LOGISTICS

Bob EhartSenior Policy and Science Advisor for NASDA

Presenter

PRESENTER

Please take a minute to answer the following two questions

QUICK POLL

FDA’s Produce Safety Regulations –

At a Glance

February 19, 2020

Bob Ehart

Food Safety: Background

• FSMA became law in 2011 in response to Congressional concerns about front-page news regarding foodborne outbreaks, many of them involving fresh fruits and vegetables

• FDA promulgated 7 foundational rules in 2013; they became final rules in 2015. One of the rules is the Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption aka The Produce Safety Rule

Classification: EXTERNAL USE

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Food Safety: Background

• NASDA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization in Washington, DC that represents the “secretaries” of agriculture for all 50 states and 4 US territories.

• NASDA members have considered “food safety” to be a top tier priority issue since 2011

• NASDA submitted comments on all 7 rules; requested clarification of the Produce Safety rule; received an extension for further comments

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Food Safety: Background Con’t

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Food Safety: Background Con’t

• NASDA stressed the need to understand both production agriculture and food safety if FSMA rules are to play a role in reducing foodborne outbreaks

• NASDA members kept hearing from farmers that they wanted the state departments of agriculture to be a buffer between FDA and the farm

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Food Safety: Background Con’t

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Food Safety: Background Con’t

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Food Safety: Background Con’t

• In 2019, FDA extended the funding for an additional 5 years

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Progress

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Progress

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Progress

• State inspections ~ 2 – 4 hrs

• Emphasis on “educate before and while we regulate”

• Some smaller states have inspected all known “large farms”

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Progress

• Some states have already begun “indoor” inspections, greenhouses, hydroponic, sprouts

• No “egregious” conditions observed by state programs thus far

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Some Lessons Learned

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Some Lessons Learned

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Some Lessons Learned

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Some Lessons Learned

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Some Lessons Learned

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Some Lessons Learned

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Challenges & the Future

• Retaining staff

• Understanding training needs

• Managing uniformity & consistency across state programs

• The myriad industry practices that have some level of risk – do they have to change? How soon? How do we amortize the expense? Is it fair to leave these issues with unknown answers until an outbreak occurs or… How to prioritize?

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Challenges & the Future

• Adding “small” farms to the inspection queue

• And then “very small” farms next year

• Inspection frequency

• Adding farms to the inspection inventory

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An Overriding Concern

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Beyond FSMA

• Food safety plan

• Farm assessment

• Educating the inspector

• Recall plans

• Neighborhood issues – land use

• Re-look at the supply chain

• Re-look at other factors that effect safety –perhaps per commodity

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Contacts

• You have great staff at Western Growers

• You have very capable people at CDFA

• https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/producesafety/

• You can get ahold of me:

Bob Ehart bob.ehart@nasda.org

202-296-9680

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Selected Resources

• Center for Produce Safety

https://www.centerforproducesafety.org/

• Records Required by the FSMA Produce Safety Rule https://producesafetyalliance.cornell.edu/sites/producesafetyalliance.cornell.edu/files/shared/documents/Records-Required-by-the-FSMA-PSR.pdf

• The PSA website at Cornell University has a great deal of resources and information

https://producesafetyalliance.cornell.edu/

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Q&A SessionQ & A

Q&A Session

Contact WG’s Science & Tech at:

wgscitech@wga.com

or

Sonia SalasAVP Food Safety, Science & Technology

Email: ssalas@wga.com

Phone: (949) 885-2251

Additional Questions or Comments?

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