Coronavirus Pandemic Turns U.S. Food and Beverage Supply Chains on Their Heads
Current U.S. food supply chains are facing a severe emergency due to the current health situation, so how can these companies meet crisis-level fulfillment goals while avoiding introducing pathogens into an already stressed food supply chain?
Food and Beverage Supply Chains
Our current coronavirus-world has turned food and beverage supply chains on their heads, highlighting the importance of supply chain visibility and meeting U.S. FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) guidance.
FSMA aims to prevent and mitigate food-borne illnesses, which, according to the FDA website, under “normal” conditions, sicken about 48 million Americans annually – a significant public health burden.
But current U.S. food supply chains are facing a severe emergency due to the current health situation – store closings, social distancing, self-isolation, and panic grocery buying.
Food and beverage manufacturers are scrambling to fulfill orders.
How can these companies meet crisis-level fulfillment goals while avoiding introducing pathogens into an already stressed food supply chain?
FMSA Guidelines for Short- and Long-Term Food Safety
If your company is responsible for manufacturing, processing, packing, transporting or storing raw or finished food products or beverages and must comply with food-borne pathogen reduction requirements, consider the following steps.
They’ll ensure your customers receive non-damaged, top-quality foods:
- Familiarize or refamiliarize your personnel with existing FSMA guidelines that define safe food management criteria.
- Explore the recent FSMA draft guidance, “Mitigation Strategies to Protect Food Against Intentional Adulteration: Guidance for Industry” to ensure your food materials remain in compliance with government guidance. This newest guidance covers necessary written actions, training, procedures, and steps to take if mitigation strategies have been incorrectly implemented–including corrective steps to identify and correct a problem that has occurred and measures to reduce its recurrence. Corrective actions must be documented and are subject to verification.
- Employ tools that ensure you bypass common food contamination problems by providing overarching supply chain visibility and optimal shipping and handling decisions, so you can deliver the highest-quality food products as soon as possible while remaining compliant.
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