The Food Safety Modernization Act Made Simple (Webinar)

Over the past year, the demand for locally produced food has grown, and with it, customers need to know that what they buy is safe for their families. Although complying with coronavirus-related mandates is of utmost importance to food businesses, of equal significance is the focus on safe food that has been with us since 2011, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began developing a more proactive system for food safety across the United States.

Because the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was adopted in phases, many food producers and processors were not impacted until September 2018, when the Preventive Controls for Human Foods rule included “very small businesses.” To build a profitable enterprise, it is often important to sell products out of the local area, and on the internet – making FSMA compliance mandatory.

This session will focus first on a 5-step process to learn what customers want, gather business resources, take steps to make food safety visible, reset by reflecting and refreshing, and then get ready to take on “the next big challenge.” Since FMSA compliance will, doubtless, play a part in “phase two,” guest speaker, Rick Kralj, Penn State Senior Extension Educator, Food Safety & Quality, will provide an overview of FSMA Preventive Controls and answer your questions about how it applies to your business – today and in the coming years.

You will learn how to:

– Determine what your customer values today to assure them of product quality and safety
– Determine how current products and marketing methods are impacted
– Build stepping stones to appropriate levels of FSMA compliance for your food business
– Develop an action plan appropriate to your business, to comply to PDA and FDA expectations

This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under subaward number LNE20-398.

Please note:
The same session is being held at two different times: Thursday, September 23 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. (Register here: https://pasbdc.ecenterdirect.com/events/28546) or Friday, September 24 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. (Register here: https://pasbdc.ecenterdirect.com/events/28547) These sessions are provided at no cost, but space is limited and pre-registration is required. The sessions will also be recorded and distributed to all registrants for their post-session use.