FSMA – A High Level Overview for Importers Of Food to the USA

The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law in January 2011. FSMA pertains only to food regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and represents the greatest changes to US food safety regulations in over 75 years. Stephen Ostroff, M.D., the FDA’s new Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine (FVM) recently highlighted the complexities of working in a food system, especially with the United States being such a major global importer and exporter of food. Food is sourced from an estimated 200 countries into the United States, thus it is imperative that FSMA is both understood and adopted by the entire US food supply chain, both domestic and imported.