Now is Your Chance to Comment on Food Safety Rules!

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Written by Kelly Damewood on Monday, December 8, 2014

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is accepting public comments on its recently updated food safety rules now through December 15. To comment, CCOF highly recommends that you use the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s (NSAC) comment template and instructions.

The updated rules include significant changes, such as:

  • revised water testing standards,
  • deferred manure treatment standards, and 
  • a more collaborative approach to regulating parts of mixed-type facilities — e.g. operations that grow, pack, and/or process on the farm.

FDA issued the updated rules after receiving extensive public comments and information on the originally proposed rules, which the FDA released in 2013. The first set of rules had substantial problems including unclear enforcement procedures and conflicts with organic standards.

CCOF members played a significant part in encouraging FDA to update and reopen the comment period on problematic Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) rules. Now, it’s time to speak up and help policy makers understand organic food production and how food safety regulations impact your operation.

For more information on the proposed rules, visit NSAC’s food safety pages. Again, we strongly encourage you to take advantage of NSAC’s comment template and hope that you join us in working with FDA to improve food safety standards.