November 2, 2016, Covington Alert

Last week, FDA released a draft guidance1 clarifying requirements for the “disclosure statement” provisions of its four major Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) rules. Entities subject to these provisions must disclose, in documents accompanying the food, that certain hazards have not been controlled. The draft guidance provides insight into the circumstances in which FDA would expect covered entities to utilize the “disclosure statement” provisions, explains how the covered entity should describe the identified hazard, and discusses what type of documents may be used for the disclosure statement. Additionally, FDA reminds industry stakeholders that the entity receiving such a disclosure statement is responsible for taking appropriate steps to ensure that the identified hazards are controlled before the food reaches the consumer.

August 25, 2016

Earlier this week, FDA released five chapters of a multi-chapter draft guidance on hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls for human food. The long-awaited draft guidance is intended to help industry comply with certain requirements of the agency’s final rule for preventive controls for human food (PC rule) under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The PC rule generally requires all FDA-registered domestic and foreign food facilities to establish and implement a food safety system, documented in a written food safety plan that is prepared by a preventive controls qualified individual (PCQI) and includes an analysis of hazards and implementation of risk-based preventive controls (PCs).

November 17, 2015, Covington Alert