Legislative Update Information

Numerous prescribed actions of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) came due one year from its January 4, 2011, enactment. However, as of this writing, the only January update from FDA was its One-Year Progress Report in which 2011 achievements were highlighted and initial steps, inspections, outreach and technical assistance, and reports were detailed. Since signing of the act, the report stated, “FDA has made significant progress in developing proposed rules to implement the sweeping food safety reform law, publishing mandated reports, and taking important steps toward increasing overall food safety capacity in the United States.”

With little new coming out on FSMA specifics and rules, we continued to await an announcement or publication from FDA on the status of the many provisions that are past due.

As such, the January-February column, Legislative Update by David Acheson, is being held for online publication in order to provide our readers with the most current information possible.

The column is available after February 17, 2012, at http://www.qualityassurancemag.com/qa0212-legislation-food-safety.aspx.

For more information on the FSMA timeline and progress report, see:

• The FDA One-Year Progress Report – http://www.qualityassurancemag.com/FileUploads/file/FSMA_progress_report.pdf.
   
• Food Safety Modernization Act: Summary and Timeline, by David Acheson - http://www.qualityassurancemag.com/FileUploads/file/FSMA_Summary_Timeline.pdf.