Alignment of Third-Party Food Safety Standards With Food Safety Regulations: Notice of Pilot Program

Résumé

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA, the Agency, or we) is seeking requests for participation from members of the public, including owners of third-party human food safety standards, interested in participating in a voluntary pilot program to evaluate third-party food safety standards. On July 13, 2020, FDA announced the New Era of Smarter Food Safety Blueprint and the desire to explore the increased use of reliable third-party audits to help ensure safer food, including exploring the use of reliable audit data in risk-prioritization for FDA regulatory activities, for example, with respect to inspections of both imported and domestically produced foods. Under the pilot program, FDA will assess third-party food safety standards for alignment with certain FDA food safety regulations. Knowing that these third-party standards align with certain FDA food safety regulations would give those relying on audits conducted to those standards confidence that they are meeting certain FDA requirements for supplier verification audits. The pilot will enable FDA to gain information and experience that will allow the Agency to evaluate the resources and tools required to conduct alignment reviews