Preventive Controls for Animal Food Rule

Covered facilities that operate under the Preventive Controls for Food for Animals should be aware of the following changes outlined in the Final Rule.

The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Preventive Controls for Animal Food rule has now been finalized and compliance dates will begin as of September 2016. This final ruling was designed to be more effective and practical for the food industry while still complying with the FDA’s food safety goals.

Some of the key requirements include:

1. 1. Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMPs) established by the FDA for animal food production.

• Processors that are currently implementing human food safety requirements do not need to implement any additional CGMP regulations if they supply a by-product such as wet spent grains or fruit and vegetable peels for animal food.
• Any further processing of a by-product will require companies to process to process the by-product in compliance with CGMPs. This will ensure the animal food is safe and hazard free.
• Unless they are a qualified facility, or exempt from a hazard analysis and preventive controls subpart C, the facility will need to assess its process and determine any hazards that might require a preventive control.

1. 2. Covered facilities must institute and apply a food safety system that should include the following:

• A hazard analysis
• Preventive controls
• Oversight and management of the preventive controls
• A recall plan

1. 3. The supply-chain program has been made more flexible.

• The rule requires that an animal food facility have a risk-based supply chain program in place for materials and ingredients that have been identified as a hazard.
• Animal food facilities are also responsible for confirming that the raw materials and other ingredients are received from approved suppliers.
• An animal food facility will not be required to implement preventive controls when a hazard will be controlled by another entity in the supply chain.

1. 4. The definition of a ‘farm’ is outlined in the Preventive Controls for Human Food rule and covers the two different types of farm operations; primary production farms and secondary activities farms.

1. 5. Feed mills that are associated with farms are not covered under the Preventive Controls for Animal Food rule.

Source: http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/FSMA/ucm366510.htm