Prevention activities will get the top priority in the FDA’s food safety initiative.

The FDA will develop guidances and binding regulations to serve as a foundation for a prevention-oriented food safety system. New standards will include preventive controls, recordkeeping, requirements for identifying food facilities, and program standards for inspections and for collecting and analyzing samples. The FDA will also develop standards for enforcement, response, and recovery for use by the agency and its regulatory partners in an integrated national system for food safety.

The FDA will conduct audits of regulatory and public health partners. The audits will include reviews of inspection, investigation, sample collection and analysis, enforcement, response, recovery and outreach activities. The audits will measure performance against FDA food safety program standards. Through the integrated system, the agency will substantially increase food inspections and enhance feed surveillance.

The FDA will develop standards for evaluating food safety systems in foreign countries, continue third-party certification efforts, and develop a registry of all importers. It will also expand and strengthen efforts to leverage information and build capacity with U.S. trading partners. When fully implemented, this program will hold imported and domestic foods to a common high standard of safety.

The agency will add state liaisons to provide program guidance and direction. State liaisons will aid timely communication with the agency’s regulatory and public health partners. The FDA also will develop and implement a national work plan for inspecting food manufacturing and distribution facilities and for collecting and analyzing compliance, surveillance and environmental samples.

For more on FDA’s food safety plans see the Thompson Publishing Group’s FoodSafetyCompliance Web site.