FDA PROPOSES CHANGES TO FOOD SAFETY MODERNIZATION ACT RULE FOR WATER USED ON PRODUCE

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a proposed rule that aims to enhance the safety of produce. It proposes to require farms to conduct comprehensive assessments that would help them identify and mitigate hazards in water used to grow produce. This is the latest step in the agency’s implementation of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), and it proposes to replace some of the existing requirements for agricultural water in the Produce Safety Rule (PSR).

The proposed rule, if finalized, would change certain pre-harvest agricultural water requirements for produce and farms subject to the PSR, other than sprouts operations. Key provisions in the proposed rule include:

• A requirement for farms to manage their agricultural water quality based on the results of a comprehensive systems assessment (“agricultural water assessment”) that is adaptable to the wide variety of water sources and uses and future scientific advancements. 
• An annual assessment by farms of their pre-harvest agricultural water to identify any conditions likely to introduce hazards into, or onto, covered produce or food contact surfaces. Based on these assessments, farms would then determine whether corrective or mitigation measures are reasonably necessary to reduce the potential for contamination. The assessment would include an evaluation of the farm’s water system, agricultural water use practices, crop characteristics, environmental conditions and other relevant factors, such as the results of any testing conducted to inform the assessment. 
• A requirement that farms implement expedited mitigation measures for hazards related to certain activities associated with adjacent and nearby lands, to protect the quality of the water used on produce. This is being included following several recent outbreak investigations on produce that revealed potential routes of contamination including activities and conditions, such as animal grazing and the presence of livestock and wildlife on land adjacent to, or near, produce farms or their water sources. 
•  The removal of certain testing requirements for pre-harvest agricultural water and replacing them with the agricultural water assessments identified above. The proposed revisions are intended to address stakeholder concerns about complexity and practical implementation challenges while protecting public health. 

The FDA intends to continue working closely with stakeholders and our state and tribal partners to provide necessary training, technical assistance, education, and outreach. The agency will hold two virtual public meetings to discuss the proposal and hear feedback, and more details will be announced in a forthcoming Federal Register notice. In addition, the agency is also developing an online tool to assist growers in understanding agricultural water assessments. Recognizing that the current agricultural water compliance dates for covered produce (produce that is generally consumed raw, which would exclude potatoes) other than sprouts under the PSR are set to begin in January 2022, the agency intends to exercise enforcement discretion for those agricultural water requirements while pursuing another proposed rule to extend the compliance dates for all of the agricultural water requirements in the PSR for such covered produce. More information on the proposed compliance date extension will be announced in a forthcoming Federal Register notice. Today’s proposal is one of the critical remaining pieces of working towards FSMA implementation. The FDA has taken many important steps to achieve the food safety goals envisioned by Congress when FSMA was established in 2011, such as implementing seven foundational rules. The FDA also has developed multiple action plans to address specific food safety issues and has further built on the foundation under FSMA through the New Era of Smarter Food Safety initiative.