EXPORTING TO THE USA - CERT ID PARTNERS WITH BRC TO DELIVER ADVICE ON NEW FSMA MODULE

1 June 2016

Following on from being awarded BRC’s Certification Body of the Year in the USA, 5* BRC rated certification body FoodChain ID Certification has been selected by the BRC as a Partner in the roll out of the new voluntary module within the BRC Version 7 Global Standard relating to the Food Safety Modernisation Act (FSMA). As part of this FoodChain ID Certification will also be advising on the latest FDA Food Defense Regulation (May 2016) included in FSMA that requires food businesses to assess their risk to food fraud.

The most sweeping reform of US food safety laws in more than 70 years, the FSMA has been developed to ensure that US food and drink reaches the highest standards in both production and safety, with a big shift towards ‘prevention rather than cure’. Any European food or drink manufacturer supplying the US will also now have to adhere to the FSMA. The new module can be added on to a BRC audit.

The FDA issued a final food defense regulation in May 2016, which will apply to all businesses undertaking the FSMA module. Under the new rule, both domestic and foreign food facilities, for the first time, are required to complete and maintain a written food defense plan that assesses their potential vulnerabilities to deliberate contamination where the intent is to cause wide-scale public health harm. FoodChain ID Certification Europe’s sister company FoodChain ID Europe is providing training on Food Defense and Vulnerability, which specifically covers aspects of food fraud and defense in line with with EU and US FDA regulations.

For European manufacturers considering adding FSMA to their next BRC audit, reports value the US food and drink sector at $7.4trn in 2015. The FDA estimates that more than 140,000 food and drink manufacturers worldwide will be affected by the FSMA.

FoodChain ID Certification’s expertise undertaking BRC audits across both Europe and the US means that the company is well placed to understand the needs of food businesses supplying the US market and the requirements of the market in terms of food safety and legislation. Very few certification bodies working in Europe are also able to offer manufacturers the ability to audit against the new FSMA module.

David Wolf, Technical Manager and BRC expert at FoodChain ID Certification said:

“A key aspect of FSMA for European food and drink manufacturers is that it opens up US markets in a much easier way than the current process of exporting to the US. FoodChain ID Certification has major certification offices in the UK and US so it is natural for us to provide a complete FSMA package across continents with ease, as we have expertise from both sides”.

John Kukoly, BRC Global Standards Director – Americas, has developed a webinar series to inform FoodChain ID Certification customers on the requirements of the new FSMA standard which will be delivered in conjunction with FoodChain ID Certification over the next few months.”