FSMA Fridays: What The FDA's FSMA Guidance Is Telling Us (Part Two Of Four)

View the full webcast or read Part One of this series

In Part One of FSMA Fridays: What The FDA's FSMA Guidance Is Telling Us, SafetyChain Software’s VP of Marketing, Jill Bender, discussed with the Acheson Group’s Dr. David Acheson the FDA’s recently released FSMA guidance documents and what they are telling the food industry. Here, in part two of the series, the duo will continue their conversation.

Jill: What about the appendices to guidance documents? What are those all about?

David: Well, I’ll admit, I have not read the appendices from one end to the other. But the appendices are starting to provide us with, I think, some interesting focus on exactly what hazards the FDA is thinking about in different types of foods. When we say, “Alright, we’re supposed to seek the potential hazards,” and within that we’re supposed to determine which of those hazards in our system rise to the level that requires a preventive control.

What this appendix has done is, at least in my view, it’s thrown out what the FDA thinks are the microbial risks, the physical risks, and the chemical risks that we should be thinking about. It’s another 200-plus pages of material, and in my view, it’s got a lot of useful information in it.