FDA Issues Final Guidance on Oversight of Food Covered by Systems Recognition Arrangements
June 21, 2022
Dear International Colleague,
Today, the FDA issued the final guidance, FDA Oversight of Food Covered by Systems Recognition Arrangements: Guidance for Food and Drug Administration Staff. The document provides guidance related to the agency’s regulatory oversight activities for foods covered by a Systems Recognition Arrangement (SRA) between the FDA and another country’s food safety authority, in which the agencies have determined through an assessment that they operate comparable regulatory programs that produce similar food safety outcomes.
The guidance covers FDA’s regulatory oversight activities for covered food products produced in or imported from countries covered by SRAs, such as those that FDA currently has with Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. It is part of the FDA’s larger effort to take a risk-based approach to food safety and recognize the need to ensure the safety of imported food, consistent with the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
Systems Recognition is not only an efficient way to help ensure safe food is imported into the U.S., it also contributes to a safer global food supply, in alignment with the FDA’s mission to protect public health. It will allow the FDA to leverage regulatory partners’ food safety systems, reallocate resources in a more risk-based manner, and improve and expand our information-sharing, such as recall information on food safety issues.
Additional Resources:
Systems Recognition (Food) | FDA
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