FDA Food Safety Modernization Act
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Search complete. 50 mentions across 27 episodes found for "FDA Food Safety Modernization Act".
Sep 14, 2026
Melanie Nuce-HiltonGUEST
That's part of where I think government and industry working together is a fascinating opportunity for us.
Melanie Nuce-HiltonGUEST
There is regulation today called the Food Safety Modernization Act.
Melanie Nuce-HiltonGUEST
that the US Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, put into place in 2011, but they are now in the process of implementing the food traceability rule.
Melanie Nuce-HiltonGUEST
We call it FSMA Rule 204.
speaker_0HOST
It really is.
DonHOST
So let's dig into the FDA's food traceability rule, specifically Section 204 of the Food Safety Modernization Act, or FSMA.
speaker_0HOST
Right.
speaker_0HOST
So the Food Safety Modernization Act has been this, um, looming giant in the room since, what, 2011?
DonHOST
Yeah, over a decade ago.
speaker_0HOST
And the philosophical goal was always to move the US food supply chain away from reacting to a deadly E. coli outbreak, and toward preventing it before the contaminated product even reaches a loading dock.
speaker_1HOST
It is a regulatory minefield out there right now for anyone involved in sourcing and purchasing.
speaker_1HOST
The biggest, most immediate looming threat is FSMA Rule 204.
DonHOST
For the uninitiated, let's break this down.
DonHOST
What does FSMA actually stand for? And why is Rule 204 making supply chain managers lose sleep?
speaker_1HOST
Okay.
speaker_1HOST
FSMA stands for the Food Safety Modernization Act.
speaker_1HOST
It was a sweeping overhaul of U.S. food safety laws.
speaker_1HOST
Rule 204 is the specific mandate within it that deals with traceability, and the compliance deadline is looming very fast.
Joe LynchHOST
Yes.
Joe LynchHOST
The Food Safety Modernization Act, which I don't know, it's what, seven, eight years old now? Longer than that.
Joe LynchHOST
Signed by President Obama back then.
Joe LynchHOST
When we made that update, I did a lot of training for companies on that.
Joe LynchHOST
And the expectation is there's a chain of custody and you need to be able to prove that it stayed in temperature range Otherwise, you're violating the Food Safety Modernization Act.
Joe LynchHOST
That won't be tolerated.
Joe LynchHOST
The FDA expects this.
Hal KingGUEST
But I think the lag compression is the number one thing we want to do, um, is try to get as close as we can to as soon, as soon as we have an illness report, we can identify what it is.
Hal KingGUEST
And that's, that's the reason why the FSMA, um, rules for traceability are so important for the industry and for the government because that will suppress that lag time to identify the commodity and remove it from service.
Hal KingGUEST
Um, I think it's, it's just very, very important to, I think now in a lot of good brands that are really focusing and investing in food safety are trying to c- shorten that lag phase away from waiting for customer illness signals to when, what are the predictive type things that would suggest my product's gonna be contaminated.
Hal KingGUEST
And that's getting into more testing and more, and more testing of identification of irrigation waters, um, that sort of thing.
Flora LichtmanHOST
What's the traceability rule?
Brian RonholmGUEST
So there was a law passed in 2011, Food Safety Modernization Act, and within that law, there was a provision that required the industry to set up a adequate traceability system that would allow the industry to trace back a, a particular product down to its source in an efficient manner, therefore just limiting the impact of a recall, right? So if, if they're able to trace back a particular product down to the source, they're able to identify it quicker, identify source of an outbreak quicker, and pull that product, and thus limiting the consumer exposure and lower the risk of, of additional illnesses.
Brian RonholmGUEST
That was the key provision in the law, but under industry pressure, uh, FDA has delayed the implementation of that rule.
Brian RonholmGUEST
Um, and so now it's, it's not gonna go into effect until July 2028, and that's 17 years after the original law was passed.
Adrienne BloomHOST
So according to the FLPC, the bill's preemption provision would likely affect state and local requirements covering food additives and chemicals, food labeling and warnings, chemical and biological contaminants, retail food stores and food service establishments, cottage food and home kitchen operations, and food manufacturing permits and inspections.
Adrienne BloomHOST
And that could include requirements such as state additive bans, restaurant allergen disclosures, controls for things like heavy metals and PFAS, restaurant licensing and inspections, and oversight of smaller food manufacturers that are exempt from certain requirements under the Food Safety Modernization Act.
Adrienne BloomHOST
Now, one of the FLPC's central concerns was that federal preemption under the bill would not depend on whether a corresponding federal requirement actually exists.
Adrienne BloomHOST
So in other words, state protections could potentially be eliminated in areas where there is little or no equivalent federal regulation.
6 MINS LATER
Sandra EskinGUEST
Yeah.
Sandra EskinGUEST
Now I'm going to speak as the daughter of a builder, which I am, but actually I'm going to go back to, to the point.
Sandra EskinGUEST
It, it, it's, I was saying earlier that I remember many years ago before the Food Safety Modernization Act was enacted that I had worked with an organization to try to push for menu labeling.
Sandra EskinGUEST
And what we wanted was one federal standard.
Kiley Harper-LarsenGUEST
They just said, "We're gonna voluntarily recall this, and oh, by the way, Taylor Farms is linked to it.
Kiley Harper-LarsenGUEST
Go chase them down more because they already have a target on their back." They literally have not owned up to anything as an importer, and they're under a little bit of a different legal situation because they are what's called an importer of record underneath the Food Safety Modernization Act Foreign Supplier Verification program.
Kiley Harper-LarsenGUEST
Whereas Taylor Farms de Mexico imported its own product, and therefore they were able to do the trace back, albeit in a cumbersome way, much quicker.
Kiley Harper-LarsenGUEST
So the complexities of the supply chain when dealing with importers is much like Dante's Inferno.
Kiley Harper-LarsenGUEST
And even when they do, those personnel on the state level may not be qualified in the areas.
Kiley Harper-LarsenGUEST
So when we're talking about a lot of produce inspections, there are certain states that simply do not have the staff that are adequately qualified to help perform investigations along with the FDA.
Kiley Harper-LarsenGUEST
They've been highly dependent for the entirety of the Food Safety Modernization Act and its investigation requirements following the 2011 Listeria monocytogene outbreak that happened in cantaloupes on the State Departments of Agriculture and the State Departments of Health to help them in performing many of the local investigative duties, and it just simply is impossible to get out there.
Eric MooreGUEST
So then what is a US importer required to verify when you're talking about foreign suppliers?
David StelzerGUEST
Because they're, you know, the rules are the same.
David StelzerGUEST
There's small, there's exceptions for really small facilities, like from FISMA, Food Safety Modernization Act and things like that.
David StelzerGUEST
but there's not for middle market.
David StelzerGUEST
So you're having to jump through all those hoops.
Christina HerrickGUEST
Yeah, well, I think the hard part is, you know, as we've talked, as Frank Giannis talked uh on the show you know customers are divisive right there you're getting information from a lot of places you're getting it from x you're getting it from tick tock you're getting it maybe hopefully from anger talk um all over the place and so it's really hard for the industry to be in all of those places at once maybe some some places not not naturally um not naturally used to having to be that consumer forward But I really think like hitting in on food safety, what's already in place, I think is really important.
Christina HerrickGUEST
And then to answer your question even more, I think, you know, this hopefully will be a motivation for the traceability part of the Food Safety Modernization Act.
Christina HerrickGUEST
which has been delayed to 2028, which I think producers have to be able to provide full traceback information.
Christina HerrickGUEST
So a grocery store all the way back to a farm within 24 hours of a notice from the FDA.
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