The first compliance date for FSMA’s Intentional Adulteration Rule occurred in July 2019.  This compliance date applies to the largest facilities – >500 employees – with additional dates for smaller facilities coming in 2020 and 2021.  The FDA has also said that they will not commence with compliance inspections until March 2020 to give processors time to get ready.

In our article in the Aug/Sep Food Safety Magazine, we asked if processors felt they were ready for this new rule and most said they they were.  Greater than 70% of those US and Canadian companies with fewer than 500 employees, and nearly 90% of those with more than 500 employees reported being ready.

As with many of these new FDA rules, the processors said that they believed that they were ready but that they really would not know until they had their first inspection under the rule when they could find out if their interpretations matched – or at least were acceptable to – those of the regulators.

What were they most concerned about?  Most were worried about how broadly they needed to consider risk scenarios and how unlikely does a attack need to be before it no longer needs to be considered in their IA plan?  Do they need to address every scenario that a regulator can dream up?

We’ll find out more about how ready processors are come next year.  In the meantime find out more about what they are saying in our Food Safety Magazine article.  The link is below.

The FSMA Intentional Adulteration Rule Is Here: Are Processors Ready?   http://bit.ly/2HvimFE