The Food and Drug Administration has finalized the first major food safety regulations under a sweeping federal law that’s intended to prevent illnesses linked to both domestic and foreign-produced foods.
The first two rules, which were tweaked to address a range of concerns from industry and small-scale businesses and farms, will require food processors and animal feed manufacturers to have preventive controls aimed at preventing products from becoming contaminated.
The rules were mandated by the Food Safety Modernization Act, which was signed into law in January 2011. FDA said the final versions “incorporate thousands of public comments, including valuable input from farmers, consumers, the food industry and academic experts, to create a flexible and targeted approach to ensuring food safety.”
Industry groups praised the agency for making changes in the proposed rules to address processors’ concerns.