The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a proposed rule to amend and update its regulation on registration of food facilities, in a bid to enhance the food facility registration system.
Besides improvement, this new development will also result in the implementation of certain provisions of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) that adds new provisions to the requirements for food facility registration.
With this regulation, food facilities in US will be required to register with FDA. However, the establishments such as "retail food establishments," farms, restaurants, and certain other entities are free from this requirement.
The new rule will also amend the definition of a retail food establishment in a way that would expand the number of establishments that are considered retail food establishments.
According to FDA, the primary function of an establishment is to sell food directly to consumers if the annual monetary value of sales of food products directly to consumers exceeds the annual monetary value of sales of food products to all other buyers.
It is estimated that there are around 71,000 farms that only sell food products directly to consumers in ways that include farmers markets, roadside stands and CSA programs.
