One on the provisions of the Food Safety Modernization Act, which became effective Jan. 4, is a mandate for food importers to verify the safety of food they import, though what is being called the Food Supplier Verification Program.

According to the FDA website, under the new law, “for the first time, importers have an explicit responsibility to verify that their foreign suppliers have adequate preventive controls in place to ensure that the food that they produce is safe.”

The legislation specifies that final regulations and guidance are due one year following enactment of the legislation, and the FDA actually announced in late January that proposed rules would be issued “soon.” But as of early February, the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas in Nogales, AZ, was still waiting to see what those rules would be, and other aspects of the legislation made it important to the industry that the rules for foreign supplier verification be forthcoming in a timely manner.

“It is going to be important for us to look at that proposed rule and how that is going to tie into the other two proposed rules” that have already been issued under FSMA, said Allison Moore, director of legislative and regulatory affairs for FPAA in an interview with The Produce News Feb. 5.

“The FDA has said they want to make sure” that the rules for foreign supplier verification come out before the comment period for the other two rules expires, Ms. Moore said. “That is huge. Our comments really will rely on looking at the three rules together, to get as in depth as they need to get.”

The first two sets of rules were issued Jan. 4, the same day the act became effective, following a year of “extensive outreach by the FDA” to the produce industry and the consumer community, according to an FDA news release.

“The first rule … would require makers of food to be sold in the United States, whether produced at a foreign- or domestic-based facility, to develop a formal plan for preventing their food products from causing foodborne illness” and to have a plan for “correcting any problems that arise,” the release stated.

The second proposed rule “proposes enforceable safety standards for the production and harvesting of produce on farms,” the release stated.

The public comment period for both rules is 120 days.

“We are waiting for that third one to come out to look at all three as a package,” Ms. Moore said. Currently, “we really don’t have a huge detailed handle on what we are going to see from the FDA,” but what the industry has asked for is “a clear road map for what an importer needs to do to show that they have done their due diligence in working with their growing partners in other countries.”

Right now, producers have “a lot of different programs that they implement — different auditing programs, different food-safety plans. It is a pretty extensive process. And we want to know clearly from FDA, as an industry, how we need to present that information to them [on what FDA will require of them] … so that it is useful, accurate, and does what FDA wants it to do, which is to show that U.S. companies are working with trusted partners.”

Food safety is “nothing new to growers in Mexico,” Ms. Moore said. “Basically, as suppliers to this country for many decades and also as a group of growers that don’t have the home team advantage, Mexico has realized for many, many years that they have to take certain steps and procedures and have multiple audits from multiple buyers and different companies and foreign governments” just to get the access to and the respect of the U.S. market. “I think they go above and beyond any expectation to ensure that they have access to this market and that they are growing a quality product,” she said.