FSMA Legislation

The FSMA legislation targets the issue of food safety for the public and how to better prevent foodborne illnesses, which are considered infectious topic of public health since these diseases are mostly caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites that may be foodborne. These diseases place significant burden on the US population, as about 48 million Americans become sick annually while 128000 people are hospitalized and 3000 die from foodborne illnesses, affecting many communities nationally and not any specific group of people (CDC 2016). The immune-compromised individuals have higher risk of getting these infections, such as children, elders, immune-compromised people and so on. The foodborne organisms cause illnesses that may lead to long-term
chronic conditions such as kidney failure. Currently, about 30% of the growing population are at risk for foodborne illnesses; globalization has allowed for 15% of US food to be imported, and the food supply and production chain become more complex and technologically advanced today, which can introduce new hazards in new products and unseen hazards from different production methods. The FSMA will enhance the FDA’s ability to regulate the food safety standards of companies and systems, and concentrate on hazardous prevention rather than solely responding to the incidents after they occur.

The new public health law will also collaborate with health professionals to translate scientific findings and techniques to professional and valuable policy, in order to increase our knowledge and prevention and response strategies to foodborne illness.

The legislation will address multiple elements of prevention, enhanced partnerships, inspections, compliance and response and import safety in order to improve the safety of nation’s food supply.
This law also provides primers and guidelines for state and local entities to comprehend the new expectations and resources, such as training, grants, awareness and guidance documents. The FDA has expanded their jurisdiction and access to regulate how food are produced and maintained in the markets, in order to ensure the hygienic process from raw materials to production to transporting and sales. Prevention can minimize the probability of foodborne illness arising. The government mandates the FDA to inspect the minimum of 600 foreign food factories and double the frequency every year for the next five years; so FDA will partner with foreign institutions and professionals to fulfill the request. Regarding import safety, the law directs the importers to ensure and examine their foreign suppliers to practice the same safety standards as domestic foods, and requires certification for high-risk foods, utilize a prestigious third party to certify foreign companies and has the authority to deny the imported foods if they are found defective. Enhanced partnerships are vital keys to success, as the FSMA develops a system where the government agencies (local, state and federal and international) work together to improve the overall foodborne infections surveillance, discuss the standards and
training for foreign facilities that want to export foods to the US, and achieve the common societal food safety goals. This new legislation addresses the public health topic of foodborne illness and food safety by shifting the focus from reacting to outbreaks and diseases, to the preventative approach that ensure the quality process from food production to maintenance. A safe process leads to safe outcomes, which aims to decrease the incidence of foodborne illnesses and improve our ability to prevent and respond to food safety problems.

Implementation of the FSMA is underway as the FDA is reviewing and writing guidelines, and is enforcing the rules to inspect the food facilities and apply new preventative policies. Building a new system is challenging and long-term changes are not expected to happen overnight. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the law, the FDA must provide thorough hazardous analysis of the food factories and companies, and then collaborate with the institutions to demonstrate new preventative methods and expectations. The companies may be required to submit laboratory test and inspection results on their own food production chain and on whether their foreign importers met the expected safety standards. This law may be evaluated in how the governmental and commercial facilities educate all employees on hygiene training, both oversee pathogenic monitoring and control, develop a recall plan in case the foods are inadequate, export and import activity reports, and so on. The FDA may require more human resources and funding, such as training and hiring more inspectors to enforce the new mandates. The FDA should also report how many companies they have inspected and their analysis and results to the government annually, and continue tracking different foodborne agents and their prevalence of causing various foodborne illnesses over years in order to assess the legislation’s effects and efficiency.