Top 7 Food and Beverage Safety Regulations You Should Know
Despite the regular discussion of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), it’s important to remember the wide array of other food safety regulations and initiatives that must be enforced throughout facilities across the country. Here are 7 examples of regulations every food and beverage processor should be aware.
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Top 7 Food and Beverage Safety Regulations You Should Know
Despite the regular discussion of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), it’s important to remember the wide array of other food safety regulations and initiatives that must be enforced throughout facilities across the country. From the ISO to the CFIA, regulatory bodies are responsible for ensuring you:
- maintain their food at proper temperatures
- follow through documented plans and procedures
- properly control their food hazards
Including a few notes on FSMA, here are 7 examples of regulations every food and beverage processor should be aware:
USDA FSIS: Functional Food Defense Plan (U.S.)
The Functional Food Defense Plan was designed to provide organizations a written documentation so that they can ensure best practices are not only known and followed, but also tested, reviewed and maintained. Through this plan, organizations can also contribute to a safer and more secure food supply, protect public health and their employees, decrease the risk of unsafe products, as well as economic loss, and reduce liability.
A food defense plan will also focus on the equipment that’s used in operations, which should include products with wash-down capabilities, such as high-speed doors and fabric curtain walls made from mold-resistant materials.
For more information, click here.
FDA 21 CFR Part 117: FSMA – Sanitary Transportation Rule (U.S.)
This standard builds on the 2005 Sanitary Food Transportation Act (SFTA), while also putting a stronger responsibility on shippers to develop written plans to ensure the food that enters and leaves their facility remains sanitary. Of equal importance, the food should also remain at an appropriate temperature, as verified through vigorous documentation and record-keeping.
To help ensure they comply with this part of the FSMA, shippers should use equipment that allows for a drive-through application – a best practice for the food industry. Products necessary to complete a true drive-through set-up include a vertical-storing leveler, a loading dock shelter that allows for trailer doors to be opened inside a facility, and an under-leveler seal to limit the opportunity for contaminants to enter the loading dock area.
For more information, click here.
FDA 21 CFR Part 117: FSMA – Preventive Controls for Human Food (U.S.)
As part of the FSMA, this rule requires food facilities to have a food safety plan in place that includes an analysis of hazards, as well as risk-based preventive controls, to minimize – or, better yet, even prevent – the identified hazards.
Again, shippers should consider using equipment that allows for a drive-through application. Not only is a drive-through application a best practice for the food industry, but it will also help them comply with this part of the FSMA long-term.
For more information, click here.
ISO 22000 (INTERNATIONAL)
The ISO 22000 is primarily based on the principles of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), a joint venture between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization. In particular, it establishes the requirements for a food safety management system, as it provides organizations the information they need to ensure they’re properly controlling food safety hazards and, in turn, serving the safest food possible. Any organization, regardless of its size or overall position in the food chain, can use the ISO 22000 as a guide for food safety management.
In order to ensure their facilities are up to date in the latest food manufacturing, processing and shipping trends, organizations must have products that meet the ISO 22000’s cleanliness and safety guidelines, including washdown doors, drive-through loading docks and clean air fans.
For more information, click here.
CFIA Safe Food for Canadians Regulations: Part 4, Division 4, Subdivision D (CANADIAN)
This subdivision of the CFIA Safe Food for Canadians Regulations has one main requirement: the outside and inside of a facility must be well maintained. In doing so, organizations can either prevent the sources of contamination outright or, at worst, control them.
To prevent the entry of contaminants – the best first step any organization can take to ensure their facility is properly maintained inside and outside – it should incorporate a drive-through application at the loading dock.
For more information, click here.
CFIA Safe Food for Canadians Regulations: Part 4, Division 4, Subdivision B (CANADIAN)
In the meantime, this subdivision of the CFIA Safe Food for Canadians Regulations features three primary requirements: sanitation must be conducted in a manner that doesn’t present any contamination risk to food; pests must be excluded from the establishment; and, finally, non-food agents, including lubricating oils and cleaning chemicals, should be identified, suitable and used in a manner that doesn’t present any risk of food contamination.
To comply with this standard, wash-down products, such as high speed doors, along with the following washdown curtain walls, are essentially required in food facilities. Furthermore, oil-free HVLS fans, including the following, can provide temperature and humidity benefits in these types of environments.
For more information, click here.
ISO 7010: Safety Signs (INTERNATIONAL)
Above all else, the ISO 7010 prescribes safety signs for a variety of purposes, including accident prevention, fire protection, health hazard information and emergency evacuation. The shape and color of each sign is created according to ISO 3864-1, while the design of the graphical symbols is in accordance with ISO 3864-3. ISO 7010 is applicable to virtually any location where safety issues, related to people, need to be addressed.
Undoubtedly, signs are a great first step towards facility safety. However, it’s even more important to protect employees further – with physical barriers (both permanent and moveable).
For more information, click here.
This blog was developed from the Essential Guide: Safety Regulations. For additional information on these topics and a full list of sources, click here.
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