Envisioning 2022 Food Safety and Sanitation Expectations

We began 2022 with a renewed hope for better health, safety, and progress for all. Food safety management across our global supply chain, from farm to fork, is a priority that cannot be ignored as a large piece of that hope. Last year, as we celebrated 10 years of U.S. FSMA in the thick of a continuing COVID-19 pandemic, we saw sesame recognized as the 9^th Top Allergen in the U.S. and a major nationwide recall of imported fresh onions towards the last quarter.

This year, we should expect to see some more food safety and sanitation-related progress in the U.S. and global food supply arenas, especially within the following areas:

1. Greater Emphasis on Data Analytics and Information Sharing: Risk-based food safety decisions across food sectors will become more data-driven and based on real-time. More importantly, FDA’s New Era of Smarter Food Safety ⁽¹⁾ approach has recently been initiated by stakeholders – this collaborative platform intends to leverage innovative technology and newer processes to help create a safer, more digital, and traceable food safety system.

• Better Innovative Controls through Continuous Collaboration: Besides having a science-based research and policy on Salmonella reduction ⁽²⁾ in FSIS-regulated products, there will be an increased drive towards implementing modernized controls and newer technologies for reducing pathogens, especially in raw meat and poultry products.

• Moving Ahead with an All-Inclusive One Health Vision: To get to the root source of food contamination, food safety and sanitation expectations will have to increasingly function under a multi-sectoral, One Health framework. ⁽³⁾ These efforts should work seamlessly at local, regional, national, and global levels with the goal of sustaining a positive public health outcome by recognizing the interconnectedness between people, animals, plants, and their shared ecosystems.

In the world of food safety standards and regulations, the following developments are expected:

• British Retail Consortium Global Standards (BRCGS) Food Safety Standard Issue 9 is expected to be published around August 2022, and audits to the newer version are expected to start from February 1, 2023. Stay updated with recent changes through the BRCGS website. ⁽⁴⁾
• For those in the Produce Sector, listed below are all the FSMA Rule Requirement compliance date deadlines. ⁽⁵⁾

The Produce Safety requirements are important especially when numerous recent food-illness outbreaks have been sourced to pathogen cross-contamination at the farms. For updated information on FSMA Compliance Dates, visit the FDA’s website.

Remco, as a supplier of color-coded, high-quality, and durable cleaning, hygiene, and material handling equipment, is here to assist our customers with their site’s food safety and sanitation expectations. For more information, contact us.

References:

1. New Era of Smarter Food Safety | FDA
2. USDA Releases Roadmap to Address Salmonella | Food Safety and Inspection Service
3. One Health | CDC
4. Issue 9 Revision | BRCGS
5. FSMA Compliance Dates | FDA