The U.S. Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA, and Related Agencies held a hearing on Wednesday to review the role of FDA in ensuring a safe food supply through the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Witnesses at the hearing included FDA Acting Commissioner Dr. Stephen Ostroff and Michael Taylor, deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine. They were accompanied by Bill Tootle, director of office and budget at FDA.
Dr. Ostroff and Mr. Taylor responded to a number of questions regarding the budget and implementation of FSMA, which has been designed as one of the largest and most comprehensive sets of food safety regulations in U.S. history. Though funding to implement FSMA has been deemed a high concern for Congress, implementation could be compromised if an agreement is not reached to raise budget caps in order to accommodate the amount needed. FDA stressed that, without full funding, important components of training or implementation will need to be postponed and may hinder improvements to food safety.
FDA officials stated that at least $109 million is needed for fiscal year 2016 to hire and train additional inspectors and personnel on implementation of the complex rules, in addition to enforcement of produce and imported product standards. Regulations for produce and imported product verification are expected to be released early this winter. FDA has already released final rules on the preventative standards for animal and human food manufacturing.
The final rule for animal food manufacturing is available here, and the rule for human food manufacturing is available here.
