The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) of 2011 requires all companies that make, process, package or store food for human or animal consumption to register with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by January 31, 2013, or face penalty. After the January 2013 registration, companies will be required to re-register every two years.
The FDA has published a guidance to clear up confusion about who is required to register and who is not. For example, dietary supplements, truck-mounted operations, and makers of rawhide chew treats for dogs are all required to register. Restaurants and retail operations are not. Farms are generally exempt, but there are some exceptions depending on where and how much packaging is done.
Food facilities were required to register with the FDA since the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (Bioterrorism Act) mandated that domestic and foreign facilities do so. The FSMA requires all facilities, regardless of if they have previously registered, register by the January deadline and then re-register every two years on even-numbered years.
The goal of the FSMA, the largest overhaul to US food safety laws in more than 70 years, is to shift the focus of food safety from response to prevention.. It was signed into law by President Obama on January 4, 2011. It aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it.
