FSMA – No More Delays

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As detailed in the following information from Feedstuffs the FDA will be required to meet the originally published deadline of  November 30, 2013 for draft rules.

Draft Rules Release Date

I’m torn with rather this is good or bad news.  On one hand, I’d like to get everything out in the open so that we all know what goals we’re driving toward.  On the other, much more pessimistic hand, I fear a rush to publish to make it seem like they are doing something.  Bad rules are always worse than no rule at all.

To date the rules release has been woefully slow and incomplete.  As we stand today the FDA has issued 5 draft rules, all of which are still open for comment:

Produce Safety

Preventative Controls for Human Food

Preventative Controls for Animal Foods

Accreditation of 3rd Party Auditors

Foreign Supplier Verification Program

With less than 30 days left for the rest to come – are we to believe that the above mentioned rules will fix the Food Safety program the government wants us to believe we have?  While each of these rules have some good in them, they also contain a lot of partial and wrong expectations that are going to harm small farmers and do absolutely nothing to improve the safety of our food.

While it is interesting to watch an arm of our government under the same pressures we have found ourselves under at their  hand I do not see the ultimate benefit in forcing a less than competent group of bureaucrats to rush to compile something we are going to live with.

I encourage each of you to review the proposed rules, comment early and often, make your case for changes and work closely with your industry support groups, your farm bureaus and your legislatures to help us all end up with something that does make us better.