7 Tips to Help Make Sure Your Business Follows FSMA Regulations
If your business handles food it’s vital that you are aware of the Food Safety Modernization Act. Here’s how to make sure you are following FSMA regulations
How important is food safety to your business?
Very important, right? Everyone in the food, restaurant, or supply fields knows that safe food is essential. But, if your business isn’t meeting FSMA regulations, then you’re not prepared.
FSMA, or the Food Safety Modernization Act, is a new set of national FDA guidelines, designed to keep the national food supply free from contamination.
Read on to learn seven top tips to make sure your business is ready to meet the FSMA guidelines.
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Read All Guidelines in Full
The first step to understanding the FSMA Guidelines is simple, but easily overlooked — make sure you’ve read the guidelines completely and understand how they impact your business.
Make notes as you go and write down any questions to come back to. For FSMA compliance, make sure you’re also aware of all the dates and deadlines.
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Animal Food is Also Included Under FSMA Regulations
An important thing to note is animal food, such as pet food, is including in the FDA guidelines for food. If you sell pet food, animal feed, or other food produced for animal consumption, it will still need to be compliant with FSMA.
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Integrate Into Everyday Life
The guidelines are thorough and can seem complex, but you don’t have to think of them that way. If you and your staff start to integrate the requirements into day to day life in the workplace, they will start to become second nature.
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Keep Records of All Suppliers
The FSMA guidelines require food providers to have stringent records of where food comes from and its supply chain. If you’re not already doing so, start keeping detailed records of all produce, meats, and foods used by your business, along with where they came from and on what date.
This way, any food can be quickly traced back to its origin.
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Create a Food Safety Plan
A food safety plan is a great way to help your business keep track of any hazards, risks, allergy controls, and supply-chain issues. A well-written and thorough food safety plan means your business can effectively mitigate risks and hazards, an important part of FSMA.
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Find the Gaps
When going through the guidelines, you’ll find your business is already likely to be compliant with most of them. However, make note of any gaps of things that may be new or different.
Then, you can focus on these as your first priority.
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Train Staff Thoroughly
For FSMA to be effective, all members of the business must embrace it. Hold regular training sessions with staff so that they understand both why FSMA is so important, as well as what they can do in their roles to make the worksite compliant.
Get Started
Now that you have some helpful tips for FSMA regulations, you can start using them in your business. Once everyone in your business appreciates the importance of the guidelines and understands what role they play, you should find it easy to become FSMA compliant.
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