Safety and Risk Mitigation: Implications of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) on Dairy Processing

Abstract

The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), and associated regulations, is the most sweeping reform of the food safety regulatory system in the USA in more than 70 years. The FSMA confirms the primary role of the food manufacturing industry in assuring food safety, requires the food industry to conduct risk-based hazard analysis and implement preventive controls to minimize identified hazards, and applies to domestic as well as imported foods. Implications of the FSMA on the dairy processing sector depends on the specific types of dairy products being manufactured or imported (i.e., Grade “A” or non-Grade “A”). Grade “A” processors and products are subject to the State-enforced Grade “A” Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO), which has been updated to align with the FSMA Preventive Controls for Human Food (PCHF) regulation while the non-Grade “A” dairy processors and products are directly subject to the FSMA PCHF regulation. This chapter provides an overview of the FSMA regulations and briefly discusses developments in dairy industry regulations internationally as well as dairy product hazards and risk and mitigation strategies in the context of the FSMA.