On March 11, 2022, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture and California Department of Food & Agriculture is co-hosting a webinar to discuss the recently released U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) proposed rule, “Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption Relating to Agricultural Water.” The webinar will feature key FDA officials who will provide an overview of the proposed rule and be available to answer any questions.
No registration is required.
WEBINAR DETAILS:
- Webinar Title: Western Regional Webinar on Proposed Agricultural Water Rule
- Date: Friday, March 11, 2022
- Time: 10:00 – 11:00 AM Pacific Time
- Login Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81779654252?pwd=RldTdm9zekgwUm9IS3V2emZmeXNpQT09
Background on Agricultural Water Proposed Rule
The FDA is proposing to revise certain pre-harvest agricultural water requirements for covered produce (other than sprouts) in Subpart E of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule. This proposal, if finalized, would require systems-based pre-harvest agricultural water assessments that covered farms would use for hazard identification and risk management decision-making purposes. As part of the assessment, the farms would be required to evaluate various factors to identify conditions that would be reasonably likely to introduce known or reasonably foreseeable hazards into or onto produce or food contact surfaces. Click here for a summary of key considerations.
These proposed changes were announced on December 2, 2021, and are open for comments until April 6, 2022. The full text of the rule is located in Docket Folder FDA-2021-N-0471. For additional information regarding the rule provisions, public meetings, FDA’s release and WG’s working group to develop comments, click here.
