FDA Releases the ‘New Era of Smarter Food Safety’ Blueprint

On July 13, the FDA unveiled its master plan for creating a more digital, traceable, and safer food network system that should help bend the curve of foodborne illnesses in the U.S. Frank Yiannas, FDA Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response, provided a timely justification for the launch of this ‘New Era’ Blueprint for the Future: “Foods are being reformulated, new foods and new production methods are being realized, and the food system continues to evolve. To succeed in these modern times, we need more modern approaches …”

FDA’s ‘New Era of Smarter Food Safety’ blueprint is the culmination of contributions from regulators, industry experts, and public comments in order to come up with an extensive, collaborative, and practical document based upon the following four core elements:

1. Tech-enabled traceability approaches;
2. Smarter tools and approaches for prevention and outbreak response;
3. New business models and retail modernization; and
4. Food safety culture.

These leveraging technologies, processes, and best practices are intended to support but not replace FSMA, while assisting the industry with developing compliant, prevention-based food safety systems. Moreover, the video message from FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn emphasized that increasing relevance of the ‘New Era’ plan: “We know from our experience during the [COVID-19] pandemic that the blueprint is about those ideas whose time has come, and implementing them will strengthen our ability to protect the food supply, in good times and [in] bad [times]…”

Remco is proud to have participated by providing valuable public comments for FDA’s ‘New Era’ blueprint, and shares the vision of promoting smarter food safety by providing our end-users with high quality color-coded material handling tools like scoops, tubs, scrapers, mixing paddles, and much more. As a Vikan company, we also distribute innovative, hygienically designed cleaning tools and solutions (such as brushes, brooms, and squeegees) to food producers and manufacturers based in North America. For further information, please visit us at: remcoproducts.com.