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FDA awards state grants to aid with Food Safety Modernization
 
By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Michigan and some nearby states have received sizeable grants from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to advance goals set out by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
 
In a statement July 19, the FDA announced a total of $30.9 million in funding to help states and other entities come into compliance with FSMA and specifically the Produce Safety Rule (PSR). In September 2016, FDA made its first announcement of grants for this in the amount of $21.8 million to support 42 states with implementation of the PSR.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) is working hand-in-glove with Michigan State University to help farmers come into compliance with FSMA, said Kevin B essey, director of MDARD’s food and dairy division.

“This is a really new thing for farmers,” he explained. “Farmers aren’t at all used to having to deal with this kind of thing on the farm.”

None of the money Michigan received is being funneled to businesses or other groups through public-private partnerships or other similar arrangements.

Instead, in addition to MDARD working alongside MSU, department staff are working on helping farmers through the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP).

This is a voluntary effort in which farmers use best practices as defined in the program and become certified as “MAEAP-verified” after MDARD staff certify that the farmer or grower has met the program’s requirements. Compliance with the PSR itself is not voluntary.

The PSR focuses on several categories, including agricultural water and water quality, raw manure and stabilized compost, sprouts, domesticated and wild animals, worker training and health and hygiene and equipment, tools and training.

For example, under the PSR farmers will be required to test their untreated agricultural water. Water that workers use to wash produce and hands will have one standard and water used to grow produce will have another. Some testing of the water will be required to determine the presence of generic E. coli. According to the rule, the FDA is exploring the development of an online tool that farms can use to input their water sample data and calculate these values.

There are exemptions as well as “variances” to the new rules. For example, anyone who grows produce that is normally cooked may not be required to comply with the rules that will be required for those growing other kinds of produce. Such produce includes asparagus, dry edible beans, garden beets, sugar beets, potatoes, squash and various other commodities.

Farms that have an average annual value of produce sold during the previous three-year period of $25,000 or less will also be exempt from PSR requirements.

There are “qualified exemptions” and “modified requirements” for some farms. A link to the PSR is provided below.

The PSR has a separate category for sprouts, “which have been frequently associated with foodborne illness outbreaks,” the PSR says. “Sprouts are especially vulnerable to dangerous microbes because of the warm, moist and nutrient-rich conditions needed to grow them.”

There are various compliance dates set out in the PSR.

Under this grant, Indiana received $500,000 in 2016, and $725,000 this year; Iowa received $218,712 in 2016, $575,000 this year; Michigan, $700,000 in 2016, $1 million this year; Ohio, $377,099 in 2016, $547,490 this year; and Tennessee, $494,901 in 2016, $288,039 this year. These awards were given based on a competitive process.

To see an extensive fact sheet on FSMA’s PSR online, go to www.fda.gov/food/guidanceregulation/fsma/ucm334114.htm 
7/27/2017