IDFA Sees Promise in New Food Defense Planning Tool
The Food and Drug Administration is developing a promising software tool that will help dairy foods…The Food and Drug Administration is developing a promising software tool that will help dairy foods manufacturers to create the food defense plans that will be required as part of the implementation of the Food Safety and Modernization Act. IDFA and others were invited to participate in a recent focus group session and gave the tool high marks.
"A diverse group of food industry personnel were given a look at the prototype software recently and were generally quite pleased with it,” said Clay Detlefsen, IDFA vice president for regulatory affairs, who participated in the focus group. “We had a significant list of improvements that could make it even better.”
Using lessons learned from vulnerability assessments conducted over the last decade, FDA is developing a software tool that will guide dairy foods manufacturing facilities through the process of creating the food defense plans that will be required under the Food Safety Modernization Act. A number of IDFA member companies participated in these assessments and worked closely with FDA in identifying vulnerabilities and developing mitigation strategies.
FDA and its contractor will incorporate the suggested changes into a second prototype, which will be reviewed later this year. The software should be available in the spring of 2013. IDFA is continuing to work closely with FDA on this tool and will help member companies use it when it is finalized.
In addition to the tool, FDA will issue an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to explore key issues under the food defense requirements.
