FOOD AND HEALTH ESSENTIALS

U.S. FDA offers software to aid in development of food safety plans

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released a new software tool to help owners and operators of food facilities create a food safety plan for their operation.

The new software tool is called the Food Safety Plan Builder (FSPB), and takes users through the process of creating a food safety plan by answering a number of questions about their business and their food operations. Once completed, the resulting plan can be saved or printed out for actual use by food operations personnel, or during an FDA inspection.

Under the U.S. Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), operators of food facilities are required to have a food safety plan in place. While use of the FDA’s Food Safety Plan Builder is not required, it may be especially useful for small manufacturers with limited resources in their efforts to organise their food safety information in a manner consistent with the FSMA’s requirements.

The FDA, Food Safety Plan Builder can be downloaded directly from the FDA website. The website also provides access to additional information about the Food Safety Plan Builder tool, including instructional videos.