Over the years, the number of FDA food safety citations has grown simply because people aren’t aware of simple facts, such as foods can be frozen no longer than 3-12 months without spoiling. Thankfully, the FDA created a new set of guidelines to help manage this problem.
Why the FDA Reacted
The FDA estimates that about one in six Americans get food poisoning every year, with a staggering 128,000 hospitalizations and a shocking 3,000 deaths. Due to a large, distributed, decentralized food system, multidisciplinary efforts and multijurisdictional coordination are required.
As a result, the FDA has worked hard to create new standards and systems that can catch foodborne outbreaks more effectively and minimize food poisoning cases as much as possible. But it hasn’t been easy. After several years of research and change, they have made real progress in catching and managing these cases.
New FDA Guidelines
The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and the Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation (CORE) Network were established to gather more information about food poisoning and to create a system for managing these problems effectively.
The FDA also helped expand Rapid Response Teams (RRT) throughout over 20 states which train and coordinate with the FDA and respond to any food hazard. In 2019, they launched another initiative, the New Era of Smarter Food Safety, to create a smarter and more traceable food system. The idea behind these approaches is not only to prevent food poisoning cases but also to better treat them when they do occur.
The FDA also created the Foodborne Outbreak Response Improvement Plan to focus on multi-state outbreaks and help manage them quickly and efficiently. FORIP will focus on product tracing, root cause investigation, use and dissemination of data, and FDA operational improvements.
This type of progress is important because it helps modernize and streamline the system, making it more effective. For more information on how to prevent an outbreak in your establishment, give us a call today.
