Oregon Focuses on Food Safety Modernization Act

Oregon Focuses on Food Safety Modernization Act

An important deadline approaches for two proposed food safety rules that impact growers and processors throughout the country. The Food Safety Modernization Act– or FSMA for short– ambitiously proposes a comprehensive system for preventing food borne illnesses as well as reacting to them and as Oregon Department of Agriculture's Stephanie Page explains:

Page:  "FSMA is going to have major effects on basically every aspect of food production from the farm all the way to when it leaves the processing plant." 

These FSMA proposed rules deal with produce safety and preventive controls for human food:

Page:  "With Oregon's produce industry, our valuable fruit, vegetable, and nut crops, and other crops, it's really going to affect our producers significantly. So we've been very engaged both at the national level and as a state department in putting together comments." 

ODA has been able to capture much of what is being heard from Oregon's agriculture community. Concerns include rules on irrigation water, manure application on produce fields, and wildlife intrusion onto farms. While ODA supports the goals of FSMA, it wants to make sure the rules are workable for farmers and processors.

Page says FSMA is an important step in ensuring food safety, but it needs to make sure impacts on agriculture are reasonable and doable.

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