The food traceability rule deadline is still more than a year away. But it was the primary topic at the IFMA 2024 Presidents Conference. | Photo by Lisa Jennings
Looming over the IFMA The Food Away from Home Association’s 2024 Presidents Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Tuesday, was a simple question:
Will there be more time to comply with FMSA?
FSMA, or the Food Safety Modernization Act, was adopted in 2011 (though not final until 2022) and includes the Food Traceability Rule (known as FSMA 204), which essentially requires the entire food chain to create a data tracking system for tracing certain foods from the farm to table to allow federal regulators to quickly identify and pull any contaminated product that could cause foodborne illness. Businesses must be able to provide information to the FDA within 24 hours, in the event of an outbreak.
It’s a rule that doesn’t go into effect until January 2026. But that timeline is too soon for many in the industry, who say compliance will be hugely expensive and complicated for all who touch the food Americans eat every day.
Some exemptions will apply, noted Angela Fields, senior consumer safety officer for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Coordinated Response & Evaluation Network, who walked the IFMA audience through the rule and compliance on Monday.
And Fields noted that the FDA will not start doing routine inspections on compliance until 2027. But that doesn’t mean restaurants and other foodservice operators should ignore what’s coming.
“You could take a chance and not comply,” she said. “But you never know when an outbreak will happen.”
A fundamental goal is for the industry to create a standardized language around traceability that will benefit all involved, she said.
The FDA has been focused on education to make sure the industry knows what’s coming. And associations like the recently renamed IFMA are also working on preparedness.
But, at the same time, associations across the foodservice industry are lobbying for more time.
“We’re not there,” said Michelle Korsmo, president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association, which is advocating for legislation that would give the industry time to create a pilot program that will help people figure out what to do before FSMA’s obligations take effect.
Independent restaurants, in particular, will need help, Korsmo said. And the NRA offers resources to help determine who will be impacted.
Even though FSMA has been in the works for more than 10 years, she noted, “If we haven’t been able to figure it out in a decade, we’ve got to figure out what we can do in two years.”
Jennifer Hatcher, chief public policy officer and senior vice president of government & public affairs at FMI—The Food Industry Association, urged the conference audience to sign an industry letter to the House Appropriations Committee (by Nov. 12) that calls for a two-year extension after a pilot project.
“The food industry is fully committed to food safety and working with the FDA,” the letter states. “To this end, companies throughout the food supply chain are dedicating considerable time, effort and resources to identify compliance solutions for the Food Traceability Rule, but after two years of implementation, the industry still needs more time to create an effective and workable system.”
Hatcher said members on the grocery side, for example, estimate the traceability rule could impact about 30,000 products. One member estimated the cost for tracing just one of those products could be as high as $50,000.
“We’ve got to justify selling a heck of a lot of beans” to cover that, she noted.
Whether or not pleas for more time will be heard may depend on the political landscape following the election, and the lame duck period that will follow.
Others, like Andy Sasser, senior manager of culinary at Amazon Fresh, said it’s time to go with it and get it done.
“We can all hold hands and do this,” he said.
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