FDA Issues New Preventive Control Rules Required by Food Safety Law

Statement of CSPI Senior Food Safety Attorney David Plunkett

September 10, 2015

Under the preventive controls rules released today by the Food and Drug Administration, food manufacturers must develop food safety plans for how they will mitigate or prevent contamination during processing. Also, FDA inspectors will have access to more information about conditions in the food facility. This will help them ensure that companies are complying with their food safety plans. CSPI is disappointed, however, that the FDA exempted thousands of companies that Congress intended to be covered by the new requirements.

It has been a long slow slog, but our country has now taken a major step toward creating a truly modern food safety system, and that’s good news for consumers. This transformative rule focuses on preventing illnesses rather than just responding after people are already sick. Now Congress must fund FDA so that it could actually conduct inspections and help industry comply with the new requirements.