Source: NATIONAL SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE COALITION, 4/8/15

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released a long-awaited proposed rule to amend the registration requirements for food facilities, particularly as they relate to direct farmer-to-consumer agriculture operations.  This amendment was required by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) to ensure that community supported agriculture (CSA), farmers’ markets, and other direct marketing venues are not inappropriately classified as food facilities and subject to the FSMA preventive controls rule.  

“One of the most concerning aspects of the FSMA rules for farmers has been the confusion surrounding when FDA will consider a farm to also be a food facility,” said Sophia Kruszewski, Policy Specialist with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.  “This clarification is critical to understanding and avoiding FSMA’s adverse impacts on the growing local and regional food sector.”

There were two aims of this clarification – the first was to reinforce that CSAs, farmers markets, roadside stands, and other primarily direct-marketing operations are not facilities, do not have to register with FDA as facilities, and are not subject to the Preventive Controls Rule.  The second aim was to clarify that the location of the direct sale could not trigger the facility definition – e.g., that delivering a CSA box to a location where customers could pick up their boxes would not make that operation a facility.

“We are very pleased to see this proposed rule finally released for public comment,” said Kruszewski.  “We will undertake a thorough analysis of the rule, but on an initial read it appears FDA is proposing to do just what FSMA requires: ensure that these types of operations are not misclassified as food facilities and caught up by the preventive controls rule.”