The Importance of Food Safety: An Introduction to the Food Safety Modernization Act

The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is complicated because it applies to different food businesses in different ways – and it is continually being updated. It may not apply to your farm or food business now, but it might in the future. Because of the many rules, it is almost an individual responsibility to determine if you’ll comply…but how do you decide?

This session provides an overview of FSMA in general, after which the presenters will discuss several distinct ways that food business owners might respond, depending on whether they are in retail or production, whether they are agricultural producers, or makers of value-added products, or .enterprises that transport food in the value chain.

Rick Kralj, Senior Extension Educator, Food Safety & Quality with Penn State Extension, will focus on the Preventive Controls for Human Foods rule as an example of compliance. Participants will also learn about a special program offered by the SBDC to guide them in choosing the food safety action steps that will make sense financially while maintaining the unique, creative product line that customers want.

Please note: this session will be held in person in Honesdale, PA or Troy, PA. It is not a webinar.

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 LNE20-398-34268.