FSMA Fridays: What Does Being FSMA Compliant Really Mean? (Part Two Of Four)

View The Entire Webinar or Check Out Part One Of This Series

In the first portion of FSMA Fridays: What Does Being FSMA Compliant Really Mean? SafetyChain’s VP of Marketing, Jill Bender, is joined by the Acheson Group’s Dr. David Acheson to discuss what being compliant with FSMA really means and review guidelines for the legislation’s rules. Here, in part two of the series, the duo continues to address the webinar’s live audience’s questions on what exactly FSMA is trying to achieve and what the food industry is currently doing regarding FSMA’s documents and record keeping requirements.

Jill: David, what is FSMA is trying to achieve? Could you chat a bit about that?

David: I think if we look at our challenges for FSMA implementation, it is more one of recognizing it is not a project. I think if we are approaching FSMA compliance as a project with a beginning, middle, and an end, and we can check project complete, we are missing the point. FSMA is about a culture shift, it is about moving philosophy, thinking strategy in food companies from reactive to preventive. It is about looking at risks through a different lens. What we are looking at, and I know it’s a subject du jour, is, “I need to have my food safety plan written by a certain date.” September this year or September next year or whenever you do. A lot of people are concerned about having food safety plan is it where it supposed to be.

I think the key message here is what FSMA is trying to achieve… a philosophical shift to say, “Yes, we need to be looking at risk, as I said, across our whole enterprise that they need to be controlled and how we are going to do that.” That’s the project part that’s the exercise.