Food & Agriculture

Safe Food Coalition Joins Industry, State Regulators in Support of Food Safety Inspection Frequency Mandate

CFA and other Safe Food Coalition members joined the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) and the Consumer Brands Association (CBA) in submitting the following letter to U.S. Food and Drug Administration Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock. The letter expresses support for FDA’s compliance with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) domestic inspection frequency mandates, following the agency’s suggestion that  Congress should revisit and possibly modify or repeal the FSMA inspection frequency mandate for domestic food facilities. The letter points out that the FSMA mandates were originally conceived of as minimum inspection frequencies, and should be treated as such. It also questions FDA’s recent practice of reducing the number of inspections under contract with state governments, which are often well-equipped to perform food safety inspections, and at lower cost.