Registration is Open for FSPCA/PCQI Food Safety Preventive Controls for Human Foods – Distance Training, Zoom

Register HERE

In partnership with Superior Food Safety, Napa Valley College is hosting this timely and important workshop on GFSI Audits training. 

About this Event 

FSPCA/PCQI Food Safety Preventive Controls for Human Foods – Distance Training, Zoom platform Welcome to the Workforce Training Center at Napa Valley College. In response to COVID-19, all face to face training has been suspended at the college and we have transitioned to distance education to provide this FSPCA/PCQI training in partnership with Superior Food Safety. 

This class will be presented by Oscar Camacho on the Zoom platform. Materials for the class will be provided to you electronically prior to the class. No hard copies of the materials will be provided for the class, but participants are able to create them at their own expense if they find that preferable. This 2-1/2 day class will begin at 8 am on Wednesday, Oct 21st. The link to the Zoom call as well as the links to the phone numbers to use will also be provided to you prior to the case.

What You Will Learn:

• Meet the requirements for training under Title 21 Code of Federal Regulations Part 117.155 for the Preventive Controls “Qualified Individual”
• Learn and understand the responsibilities of a preventive controls qualified individual
• Learn How preventive controls build on established food safety principles
• Understand and identify the Components of a Food Safety Plan
• Learn how to conduct Food Safety Plan activities such as developing and reviewing a food safety plan
• Provide the necessary skills for validating preventive controls, verifying and validating process controls among others

Who Should Attend:

Companies, especially small and medium sized, producing human foods that must comply with the Preventive Controls for Human Foods rule that is part of FSMA.

• Food Industry Senior Management
• GFSI Leads (SQFP)
• Operation and Production Managers
• Quality Assurance Managers and Supervisors
• HACCP Coordinators
• Supply Chain Management Personnel & Purchasing Managers
• Auditors
• Food Plant and Facility Managers
• Risk Management Managers
• Government and Food Regulatory Personnel
• Food Safety and Quality Management Consultants

Price includes class & registration fee.

ETP Pricing $250 / Non-ETP Pricing $750 

Two and a half Day Course: Wednesday, October 21st, Thursday, October 22nd and Friday, October 23rd

ETP Discount Information - All ETP qualified companies must complete ETP paperwork prior to the start of class. After the paperwork is completed, submitted and enrolled, the discount code will be supplied. Click on the following link - https://tinyurl.com/ybf76a6a and complete application to see if your company is eligible for an ETP discount (please note that an ETP 104 form must also be completed for each attendee from your company).

Please scan and email all forms to Valerie Bible @ VBible@napavalley.edu. Once you are certified, you will receive the code to register for the ETP pricing. If you are already ETP certified and need a code, please contact Valerie Bible @ VBible@napavalley.edu.

All classes are subject to cancellation in the case the class does not reach the minimum enrollment a week prior to the class beginning date.

If there are any questions or additional information wanted, don’t hesitate to contact Charlie Monahan at cmonahan@napavalley.edu or cell number at (415) 599-9322.

For more information about the trainer, Oscar Camacho, please visit his website at https://www.superiorfoodsafety.com/

NEW FEATURES: Internal Audits, Labor Costing, Maintenance Projects

Superior Food Safety has partnered with Icicle Technologies Inc. to bring Icicle, a smart food manufacturing software, to the food & beverage and the growing industries.

NEW FEATURES: Internal Audits, Labor Costing, Maintenance Projects

The latest instalment of new features dates back to June, so the list is a little long. But that also means that there are many exciting new features to show you! Since there were so many new features to include, we created a separate list for the budding cannabis industry here in Canada, but note that most of those features can also be used by the food industry, such as destruction reports. Read on to find out how Icicle just got even better for maintenance teams, QA teams, and more!

Internal Audits

When was it released? November 21, 2019

What does it do? Everyone has audits, but what about all the time in between them? You don’t want any surprises when the auditor comes by and you may also want to check in on the performance of your facilities. The new internal audit feature allows you to conduct a weighted assessment of your food safety program which results in a score that is calculated based on all the weighted factors. When you fill out the questionnaire, you rate each weighted item on a scale of 1-5 and Icicle undertakes a statistical calculation that assigns a score to the whole facility. The default questionnaire is based on GFSI standards but can also be customized for your specific requirements. Bonus: by looking at the audit reports over time, you can measure and evaluate the performance of any particular facility or to benchmark between facilities.

Where did the idea come from? Icicle already has an assessment feature and our all-knowing Senior Account Manager, Ethan Chen, realized that this same feature could be adapted in new ways for the benefit of Icicle users. We are lucky to have Ethan on staff!

Labour Costing for Production Runs

When was it released? October 21, 2019

What does it do? Calculating the cost of a product is a crucial part of any business, so isn’t it important that you factor in everything? Now Icicle can automatically calculate the labour costs associated with any particular production run. You can configure all of your workers with a loaded cost attribute so when you allocate the labour to a particular production run, you can use that information to determine the unit costs of product that includes the labour cost. This new feature helps you price your products appropriately and you can use the data to compare different production runs to investigate the causes of overruns.

This feature will soon be expanded to include the raw material costs as well, allowing you to have actual costing for all your products at any time.

Where did the idea come from? This very useful feature idea came from Markus over at Country Prime Meats. Thank you!

High Performance Upgrade to Purchase Order Interface

When was it released? June 7, 2019

What does it do? This upgrade to the purchase order interface preloads all of the items that are possible to purchase in your Icicle account into the client device, making searches return almost instantaneous.

Where did the idea come from? This one was just an improvement idea our development team had. It was fun to do!

Maintenance Work History

When was it released? November 16, 2019

What does it do? If you navigate to the equipment detail pages for any equipment, there is a new field for work history. Icicle already generates a barcode that you can put on each piece of equipment to make the work of maintenance teams easier and more efficient. Now you can walk up, scan the barcode, and Icicle will pop the equipment detail information in Icicle automatically, together with the new previous work history region. You can see all the work that has been done on a particular machine, making it convenient for maintenance staff to quickly assess the history of work and act accordingly.

Where did the idea come from? Another little idea from our CEO, Steve.

Maintenance Projects

When was it released? November 19, 2019

What does it do? A major new feature release for Icicle’s Maintenance Management module, you can now create maintenance projects in Icicle and define milestones, assign collections of work orders, and explicit tasks to these projects. This helps you manage major maintenance projects such as the construction of a new building, renovation of filtration system, etc. By grouping all of these into a project, you can do all that planning as well as track the progress of the project and report against the projected timeline.

Where did the idea come from? Yet another great idea from Markus at Country Prime Meats!

Maintenance Activity Reports

When was it released? November 20, 2019

What does it do? With this new feature release, Icicle can now run comprehensive reports that can be sliced and diced by facility, date, etc. so you can see a comprehensive list of all the different maintenance activities that occurred in one or more facilities over a particular period of time. The strategic perspective that you can gain as a result gives you a high-level look at maintenance activities as well as the ability to drill down into the data – but you can start by reviewing all the work in one cohesive report.

Where did the idea come from? The maintenance team from Country Prime Meats was really on a roll.

Automatic QA Hold

When was it released? June 26, 2019

What does it do? The new QA Hold feature enables ingredients to be flagged as requiring testing when they arrive at your facility. When you receive the items, an alert is sent out to the QA Manager to notify them that the product has been received but that the items are being held in the QA Hold inventory location until approval is granted by the QA staff. This new feature helps you make sure that no ingredients are immediately put into production before QA staff has had a chance to confirm the safety of the ingredient.

Where did the idea come from? This feature was requested by Matthew from Honest Dumplings, thanks Matthew!

Automatic Best-Before Date for Ingredients

When was it released? July 7, 2019

What does it do? This feature release is a two-parter that will help you avoid getting stuck with stale ingredients. Firstly, we enabled a default best-before days attribute to be set for ingredients so that the best-before date can be automatically calculated if no such date is provided by the manufacturer. Secondly, a few weeks later we released another feature that enables Icicle to calculate the actual best-before date based on the lot code, provided the lot code is based on production date, as is most commonly the case. You first define a “lot code key” in Icicle that enable the system to read the production date. Once this date is known, Icicle calculates the precise best-before date.

Everyone knows that you should use the oldest inventory first in order to extend the shelf life of your products, but you can’t always guarantee that the item you received from the supplier today is newer than the one you received last week. Knowing the actual production date, and therefore the actual best-before date, helps you ensure that your suppliers aren’t sending you stale products and that you use your ingredients in the most efficient order for maximum quality and safety.

Where did the idea come from? These great ideas came from Dave and Neil at Snow Cap!

Unit Conversions for Received Products

When was it released? July 28, 2019

What does it do? Icicle already helped customers make those annoying unit conversions for ingredients, but now that feature has been extended for received products as well. Say you receive a 50lbs bag of flour and store it in inventory in kilograms. The system will automatically do the unit conversion for you, no sweat!

Where did the idea come from? This handy extension was sparked by Dave from Snow Cap.

Article Source

ONLINE | Basic HACCP Workshop for Manufacturers - Distance Training - Register Today!

In partnership with Superior Food Safety, Napa Valley College is hosting this timely and important workshop on HACCP training.

About this Event

Basic HACCP for Food Manufacturers – Distance Training, Zoom platform 

Register HERE

Welcome to the Workforce Training Center at Napa Valley College. In response to COVID-19, all face to face training has been suspended at the college and we have transitioned to distance education to provide this HACCP for Manufacturers training in partnership with Superior Food Safety.

Superior Food Safety is hosting this timely and important workshop on HACCP training.

This class will be presented by Oscar Camacho on the Zoom platform. This class is from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Thursday October 15th and Friday October 16th. The link to the Zoom call as well as the links to the phone numbers to use will also be provided to you prior to the class.

Course Description - What You’ll Learn:

• Provide the attendee with the tools to build the company’s HACCP food safety program.
• Satisfy the training requirement for certification.
• Understand the basic principles behind Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOPs) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs).
• Provide the attendee with major government regulatory requirements and industry information.

Who Should Attend:

Owners, Managers, Chefs, Sous Chefs, servers, and employees of Food Service and Retail business, especially very small, small and medium-sized according to the following non-inclusive list:

• Food Industry Senior Management
• GFSI Leads (SQFP)
• Operation and Production Managers
• Quality Assurance Managers and Supervisors
• HACCP Coordinators
• Supply Chain Management Personnel & Purchasing Managers
• Auditors
• Food Plant and Facility Managers
• Risk Management Managers
• Government and Food Regulatory Personnel
• Food Safety and Quality Management Consultants

Price includes class & registration fee
ETP Pricing $250 / Non-ETP Pricing $550

Two-Day Course: Thursday, October 15th & Friday, October 16th

ETP Discount Information - All ETP qualified companies must complete ETP paperwork prior to the start of class. After the paperwork is completed, submitted and enrolled, the discount code will be supplied. Click on the following link - https://tinyurl.com/ybf76a6a and complete application to see if your company is eligible for an ETP discount (please note that an ETP 104 form must also be completed for each attendee from your company).

Please scan and email all forms to Valerie Bible @ VBible@napavalley.edu. Once you are certified, you will receive the code to register for the ETP pricing. If you are already ETP certified and need a code, please contact Valerie Bible @ VBible@napavalley.edu. 

All classes are subject to cancellation in the case the class does not reach the minimum enrollment a week prior to the class beginning date.

If there are any questions or additional information wanted, don’t hesitate to contact Charlie Monahan at cmonahan@napavalley.edu or cell number at (415) 599-9322.

For more information about the trainer, Oscar Camacho, please visit his website at https://www.superiorfoodsafety.com/

ONLINE TRAINING - Napa Valley College

All SQF classes are official and provided by Superior Food Safety a SQF Licensed Training Center. 

All Food Safety Preventive Controls for Human Food classes are authorized and posted by FSPCA, and provided by FSPCA Lead Instructors. 

The fees to attend these classes are subsidized through a joint venture between Napa Valley College-Superior Food Safety and funded by ETP-Employment Training Panel Program for companies based in California ONLY. Other states are welcome at full price. 

PRICE STARTS AT $180.00 + Administrative Fees PER CLASS

(See each link below for details)

Please DOWNLOAD, COMPLETE, and e-mail the forms below to VBible@napavalley.edu before you begin the registration process. 

Certification Application

Employment Training Panel

October 15 - 16

Basic HACCP Workshop for Manufacturers

ETP PRICE: $250 REGULAR PRICE: $550

Register here

October 21 - 23, 2020

FSPCA/PCQI Food Safety Preventive Controls – Distance Training

ETP PRICE: $250 REGULAR PRICE: $750

Register here

November 18 - 19

Implementing SQF Systems - Manufacturing

ETP PRICE: $225 REGULAR PRICE: $725

Register here 

November 20

Internal and External GFSI Audits Workshop

ETP PRICE: $150 REGULAR PRICE: $450

Register here

Consulting Services Are Now Offered Online!

https://www.superiorfoodsafety.com/

At Superior Food Safety we want to make sure that during and after this unfortunate crisis, your company has immediate access to our expertise to help your team make sound decisions on the changes and maintenance of your food safety program. We want to ensure that you do not lose sight of the basic food safety requirements to keep delivering safe quality food to the consumer. SFS-ONLINE can provide you with the following remote and/or on-site* services:

• Food Safety and Quality Consulting by the hour for Decision making on high risk or Critical issues
• COVID-19 risk mitigation strategies
• HACCP review
• Temporary retainers to fill in the absence of food safety key employees (HACCP coordinator, SQFP, PCQI, Sanitation Manager, etc.)
• Food Safety Plan (Preventive Controls) review
• Validation studies
• Verification Activities
• Virtual GMP Inspections
• Virtual Internal Audits
• Virtual records review and audits
• HACCP Team meeting participation
• Crisis Management and Recall Team Meetings participation
• Food Defense Intentional Adulteration Plan Development
• Emergency Approval of Non-Approve Suppliers to cover supply chain disruptions
• Emergency Approval of Coo-manufacturers to enhance manufacturing output due to increase on demand
• SQF, BRC, FSSC22K program Implementation and maintenance

*The safety of your staff and our consultants is our priority; therefore, we will not provide on-site services unless it is absolutely necessary.

Napa Valley Farmers Market

Open: Tuesday & Saturday

Senior (65+) Hour: 8 a.m. – 9 a.m.

Regular Hours: 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.

As of Tuesday, June 2 the Napa Farmers Market will be in the City of Napa parking lot located at 1100 West Street in Downtown Napa.

The nearby public restrooms will be reopened and available to attendees as needed. The full parking lot will be closed to the public during their permitted times on Saturdays and partially closed on Tuesdays. Access to the car charging stations will be available on Tuesdays but not on Saturdays.

More details about the Market...

Import Screening Pilot Unleashes the Power of Data and Leverages Artificial Intelligence

By: Stephen M. Hahn, M.D., Commissioner of Food and Drugs

I frequently emphasize the importance of data in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s work as a science-based regulatory agency, and the need to “unleash the power of data” through sophisticated mechanisms for collection, review and analysis so that it may become preventive, action-oriented information.

As one example of this commitment, I would like to tell you about cross-cutting work the agency is undertaking to leverage our use of artificial intelligence (AI) as part of the FDA’s New Era of Smarter Food Safety initiative. This work promises to equip the FDA with important new ways to apply available data sources to strengthen our public health mission. The ultimate goal is to see if AI can improve our ability to quickly and efficiently identify products that may pose a threat to public health.

One area in which the FDA is assessing the use of AI is in the screening of imported foods. Americans want to enjoy a diverse and available food supply. They also want their food to be safe, whether it’s domestically produced or imported from abroad.

So we launched a pilot program in the spring of 2019 to learn the added benefits of using AI, specifically machine learning (ML), in our import-screening processes. Machine learning is a type of AI that makes it possible to rapidly analyze data, automatically identifying connections and patterns in data that people or even our current rules-based screening system cannot see.

The first phase of this pilot was a “proof of concept” to validate the approach we’re taking. We decided to test this approach on imported seafood to assess the utility of using AI/ML to better target seafood at the border that may be unsafe.

Why seafood? Because the U.S. imports so much of it. Upwards of 94 percent of the seafood Americans consume each year is imported.

Strengthening Our Predictive Capabilities, a Proof of Concept

We embarked on the proof of concept by training the ML screening tool, using years of retrospective data from past seafood shipments that were refused entry or subjected to additional scrutiny, such as a field exam, label exam or laboratory analysis of a sample. This gave us an idea of how much our surveillance efforts might be improved using these technologies.

The results are exciting, suggesting that this approach has real potential to be a tool that expedites the clearance of lower risk seafood shipments, and identifies those that are higher risk. In fact, this is great news. The proof of concept demonstrated that AI/ML could almost triple the likelihood that we will identify a shipment containing products of public health concern.

The implementation team is now working to apply the AI/ML model algorithm to field conditions as part of the second phase of this work, an in-field pilot again focusing on imported seafood, and that’s where we are now. As part of the in-field pilot, the model will be applied to the screening methods used to help FDA staff decide which shipments to examine and will then provide information about which food in the shipment to sample for laboratory testing. We will then compare the results to the recommendations made by our current system.

We see this opportunity as a critical step in the FDA employing the power of AI across the spectrum of product and process challenges facing the agency. Our initial proof of concept results indicate that such innovative approaches hold great promise in further strengthening protections for consumers.

Unleashing the Power of Data to Keep Americans Safe

The pilot taps into two important new initiatives at the FDA. In addition to the New Era of Smarter Food Safety, it also reflects the priorities embodied in our Technology Modernization Action Plan – or TMAP.

On July 13, the FDA released a blueprint for the New Era of Smarter Food Safety outlining how the agency plans to leverage new technologies and approaches to create a more digital, traceable and safer food system.

When we developed the blueprint, we knew that AI technology could be a game changer in expanding the FDA’s predictive analytics capabilities, enabling us to mine data to anticipate and mitigate foodborne risks. The pilot is revealing the specific, immediate benefits that this technology could have in helping us ensure the safety of imported foods.

The TMAP describes important actions we are taking to modernize our technology information systems — computer hardware, software, data, analytics, advanced technology tools and more — in ways that accelerate the FDA’s pursuit of our public health mission.

Additionally, the plan lays out how the agency intends to transform our computing and technology infrastructure to position the FDA to close the gap between rapid advances in product and process technology and the technology solutions needed to ensure those advances translate into meaningful results for American consumers and patients. The TMAP provides a foundation for the development of the FDA’s ongoing strategy around data itself — a strategy for the stewardship, security, quality control, analysis and real-time use of data — that will illuminate the brightest path and the best tools for the FDA to enhance and promote public health.

While both of these initiatives were well underway before the COVID-19 pandemic, lessons learned during this time of crisis have underscored the need for more real-time, data-driven approaches to protecting public health.

Scaling a Mountain of Data

The pilot also gives us the opportunity to learn how to untether the knowledge we need from the huge volume of data we have from screening millions of import shipments every year. In 2019, the FDA screened nearly 15 million food shipments offered for import into our country for sale to American consumers. Last year, the U.S. imported about 15% of the food we consume and that percentage continues to increase.

The FDA has a massive amount of data about these shipments and about the companies that are producing and processing the food, offering it for import, and selling it in the U.S. marketplace. In fact, every year the FDA collects tens of millions of data points on imports alone, and we screen all the data associated with every shipment of food against the information in our internal databases. One of the major goals of our pilot is to assess the ability of AI/ML to more quickly, efficiently, and comprehensively take advantage of all the data and information residing in our systems.

In fact, we believe that we can use the knowledge that ML provides to know where best to concentrate our resources to find potentially unsafe products. In addition to improved import surveillance resources, the intelligence that ML can extract from the stores of data the FDA collects can also inform decisions about which facilities we inspect, what foods are most likely to make people sick and other risk prioritization questions.

The bottom line is this: times and technologies change, and the FDA is changing with them, but the goal remains the same – to do everything in our power to strengthen the way we protect public health.

Article Source: https://www.fda.gov/news-events/fda-voices/import-screening-pilot-unleashes-power-data-and-leverages-artificial-intelligence

Implementing SQF Systems - Manufacturing - 1 Day Left of Early Bird Pricing!!

Implementing SQF Systems - Manufacturing

Wednesday, September 23 & Thursday, September 24

8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Only $690 if Registered Before September 9, 2020

$725 after September 9, 2020

Register HERE

Superior Food Safety is hosting this timely and important workshop on SQF Food Safety training.

Course Description - What You’ll Learn:

Provide and improve the knowledge, skills, and abilities required by GFSI auditors, food industry professionals and internal auditors on:

Food Safety Management Systems
Good Manufacturing Practices and Good Agricultural Practices
HACCP Program
Review ISO-19011 Auditing Principles
Gain an understanding of the GFSI schemes (SQF, BRC, FSSC2200, Global G.A.P.) from the auditor point of view

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

SQFP, Food Safety Professionals, Sr. Management, Suppliers, Food Safety Auditors, Support Staff.

This course is designed to provide current and new SQF Practitioners, Sr. Management, Production Personnel, and their team members with the tools and knowledge to develop and maintain their SQF food safety management system and understand the process for aligning with FSMA regulatory requirements.

Price includes class & registration fee

Register Now for September's FSPCA Preventive Controls for Human Food (PCQI) - SFS Online

Wednesday, September 16 - Friday, September 18

8:00 am - 12:00 pm

Register HERE

Superior Food Safety is hosting this timely and important workshop on preventative controls for human foods under the FSMA guidelines.

What You Will Learn:

• Meet the requirements for training under Title 21 Code of Federal Regulations Part 117.155 for the Preventive Controls “Qualified Individual”
• Learn and understand the responsibilities of a preventive controls qualified individual
• Learn How preventive controls build on established food safety principles
• Understand and identify the Components of a Food Safety Plan
• Learn how to conduct Food Safety Plan activities such as developing and reviewing a food safety plan
• Provide the necessary skills for validating preventive controls, verifying and validating process controls among others

Who Should Attend:

Companies, especially small and medium sized, producing human foods that must comply with the Preventive Controls for Human Foods rule that is part of FSMA.

• Food Industry Senior Management
• GFSI Leads (SQFP)
• Operation and Production Managers
• Quality Assurance Managers and Supervisors
• HACCP Coordinators
• Supply Chain Management Personnel & Purchasing Managers
• Auditors
• Food Plant and Facility Managers
• Risk Management Managers
• Government and Food Regulatory Personnel
• Food Safety and Quality Management Consultants

Price includes class & registration fee

FDA on COVID-19 Food Safety Checklist: This is Not a Regulatory Requirement or Enforcement Tool

During a multi-agency COVID-19 update with FDA, CDC and OSHA, it became clear that further clarification regarding the FDA-OSHA checklist released in August was needed.

In mid-August, FDA and OSHA released a checklist to help food companies that were going through operational changes as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the “Employee Health and Food Safety Checklist for Human and Animal Food Operations During the COVID-19 Pandemic” document reviews employee health and social distancing (how to deal with employee exposure and testing, the arrangement of work environments, especially considering work breaks and close operations), and food safety and HACCP plans—including suppliers and incoming ingredients—cGMPs, and other operational alterations due to COVID-19.

Today FDA held an “FDA COVID-19 Update for Food Operations Stakeholders” in collaboration with CDC and OSHA to further discuss the checklist, which targets owners, operators or agents in charge of a food operation. The purpose is to help the user assess operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly operations that have restarted after a facility shutdown. Following the initial remarks, it was clear the FDA wanted to emphasize that the food safety checklist is intended to serve as a resource document, not a new guidance document or a new regulation. What was originally envisioned to be a one- to two-page checklist became a 16-page checklist that should be used in conjunction with additional information provided by FDA, CDC and OSHA, said Jenny Scott, senior advisor, office of food safety at CFSAN.

Scott reviewed the outline of the checklist, touching on employee health practices to help minimize the spread of COVID-19 (from basic handwashing practices to deadline with sick and exposed workers), employee testing and potential changes related to personnel requirements (i.e., if you are putting new people into new roles, you must consider whether more training is required), and the cGMP requirements. Among the key questions related to sanitation that Scott advised one must ask include: Are necessary cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting supplies available? Are changes needed for cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting procedures for certain areas or the frequency of conducting the procedures? Do the changes result in the need for updating instructions or training workers?

As the understanding of COVID-19 and how it spreads is evolving, Scott stressed that industry should frequently check FDA, CDC and OSHA websites for updates.

(Noteworthy link from CDC: Testing Strategy for Coronavirus (COVID‐19) in High‐Density Critical Infrastructure Workplaces after a COVID‐19 Case is Identified)

Update on FDA Inspections

Michael Rogers, assistant commissioner for human and animal food operations, ORA, FDA also stressed the fact that the food safety checklist is not a new regulatory requirement, commenting that there has been “some anxiety associated” with this misperception. “This is simply an educational tool,” Rogers said. “We recognize that every firm is different, and the checklist should be information to consider…This is not an enforcement tool.” He added that the FDA’s approach during inspections will be collaborative and that the agency will not be holding firms to the specifics of the checklist. During the pandemic, the agency has been conducting mission critical inspections. FDA has also started domestic inspections in certain areas and will be preannouncing inspections as it moves forward, and it continues to assess the situation abroad to determine when foreign inspections can resume

Article Source: https://foodsafetytech.com/news_article/fda-on-covid-19-food-safety-checklist-this-is-not-a-regulatory-requirement-or-enforcement-tool/