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It does this mainly by changing the way federal regulators address food supply safety.
Historically, regulators have been operating more in a responsive mode.
By only responding to incidents, food safety has been more an act of cleaning up problems that have been discovered, and less about preventing these problems in the first place.
The act signed by President Obama on January 4, 2011, seeks to change this mode of dealing with food contamination.
For food manufactures and restaurant operators, this new act is raising a lot of questions.
As often is the case with new government programs, the implementation process is long and rigorous.
Studies must be carried out, and pilot programs must be completed.
Two such pilot programs are being conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture.
These two pilot programs are tasked with exploring and demonstrating various methods for tracking and tracing food products.
It is important that methods be designed that are both rapid and effective.
The pilot programs will identify the types of data valuable for tracing food throughout the supply chain.
These programs are required by the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act under section 204.
The FSMA also requires the establishment of record keeping protocols for high-risk foods.
These new record keeping requirements will be developed after the USDA pilot programs have been completed and the data compiled and analyzed.
The FDA will initiate rule making after the pilot programs are finished.
Before this is done, the FDA will have to define high-risk foods.
This definition must take into consideration the currently know risks of food borne illnesses.
The FSMA states that these new requirements for record keeping will apply only to high risk foods.
Public meetings will be held during the comment period and the FDA is inviting input from stakeholders.
This new act is intended to move regulation into the field of contamination prevention.
As restaurant and food manufactures know, poor over site in the food supply chain can be deadly, not only to the consumer, but also to the business itself.
For more than a decade, the FDA has been studying product tracing.
The ability to trace a food product throughout the entire supply chain is critical in preventing food borne illnesses in high-risk foods.
The compiled data will be used along with the USDA Pilot Program Data in creating the final record keeping requirements.
Individuals interested in more information on the Food Safety Modernization Act can find the entire Act on the FDA's web site.
It is still too early to tell how this new Act will affect manufacturers and restaurant operators.
To keep up-to-date, managers and owners can sign up for email updates on the FDA's web site.
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