Food Laws and Regulation Flashcards
What 3 things are required to legally start a business?
- meet 20 requirements/standards extracted from US laws
- acquire a permit
- have authorities to regularly inspect/regulate facilities to ensure that requirements have been met and maintained
What 20 standards must be inspected and regulated at all times at a facility?
- permit
- safe location
- pest control
- waste control
- building and internal structures
- utility - air, ventilation, water, power
- equipment
- sanitizers
- personnel
- ingredients
- processes/flow
- action at critical control points
- product
- packaging
- labeling
- sanitation/hygiene
- transport/travel
- recordkeeping and documentation
- recall plan
- food safety plan (GHP, HACCP)
In what 5 ways are the 20 standards practiced at different facilities?
- fundamentals of food hygiene - food scientists
- good agricultural practice - farms
- general hygienic practice (GHP) or Food Safety Plan - food factories
- Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) - factories
- Sanitary Standard Operating Procedures (SSOPs) - any operation
What are 5 common roles of regulatory bodies?
- give out permits, take disciplinary action, and cancel permits
- enforce 20 standard laws along the supply chain
- ensure the packaging is safe
- labels contents, amounts, side effects, and contraindications honestly
- authorizes the movement of good and animals by providing IDs and health certificates
What does the USDA APHIS regulate?
live animals in the ecosystem - domestic, wild, and aquatic animals
What does the FDA and USDA FSIS regulate?
17 food commodities in the USA - food of animal origin (egg, milk, meat, and their processing factories) and food of aquatic origin (seafood + aquaculture)
What roles do veterinarians in the USDA APHIS and FDA/USDA FSIS have?
USDA APHIS - live animal health and vaccine certificates and animal welfare inspection
FDA/USDA FSIS - food of animal origin inspection
What does the USDA APHIS do?
develops, implements, enforces, and controls all laws of live animals and animal biologics
- live animal health/diseases
- vaccines
- sera
- diagnostic tests
- semen/embryos
What 5 areas does the USDA APHIS regulate?
- farms with live animals
- veterinary biologics - vaccines, diagnostic kits, sera, antitoxin, embryos, semen, pathogens
- import/export of animals
- animal welfare during rearing and transportation
- registration, permits, law enforcement on farms and veterinary biologic establishments
What is required for animal movement (import/export)?
animal certificates and ID
- ear tag
- tattoos
- chips
- health certificate
- vaccine certificate
What recognizes veterinarians nationally for animal health services?
veterinary accreditation
How does the USDA APHIS regulate diagnostic kits? Vaccines?
establishes cutoff values for negativity or positivity
set recommended doses, delivery routes, and intervals between vaccinations
How does the USDA APHIS identify animal health and welfare?
- disease surveillance
- AMR surveillance
- reporting reportable diseases
- reporting transboundary and exotic diseases of animals (TEDA)
How does the USDA APHIS implement and oversee control and eradication of animal diseases?
- vaccination
- medication
- quarantine
- slaughter
- disease zoning and compartmentalization
- disposal and decontamination of carcasses
- disinfectants
What are the 3 major food standards in the US?
- no movement of food in the USA on market for sale without proper labeling
- no food can be sold within the USA without inspection and pre-approval by FDA or USDA FSIS
- ensure that food factories are upholding the 20 standards for safety, hygiene, packaging, and labeling
How does the FDA and USDA FSIS oversee food laws?
80% FDA - eggs, milk, seafood, plants, game meat, animal feed
20% USDA FSIS - abattoirs (+ welfare), meat from livestock and poultry, eggs (without eggshell)
What commodities are regulated by the FDA?
regulates and inspects domestic and imported foods for safety, purity, contamination, and misbranding
- ensures food is safe, wholesome, and honestly labeled
What 2 non-food aspects does the FDA regulate?
- drug and medical devices in human and veterinary medicine
- human clinical trials
What does the USDA FSIS regulate?
food of livestock origin production and the environments through which food passes from producer to consumer
What are some specific responsibilities of the USDA FSIS?
- animal welfare: avoid discomfort, thirst, hunger, and health issues, allow freedom of natural/normal behavior, freedom from fear and distress
- lairage: hold animals in pens no more than 24 hours
- hygiene
- antemortem inspection: compliance with health requirements, reject dead, dying, diseased, and disabled animals that are unfit to enter the supply chain, reportable diseases, prevent and control harmful chemicals and drug residues
- human slaughter: proper stunning, no stunning for religious or ritual purposes
- postmortem inspection: hygiene, chilling, rejection
- packing, labeling, identification
What regulates American environment safety? What 5 things are specifically regulated?
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- pesticides
- wastes
- air
- water bodies
- land
- to ensure they are not being contaminated
What is the main function of the EPA?
regularly conducts air, water, and soil sampling for surveillance and ensures they are safe for humans and animals
What is the Clean Air Act of 1970?
states that atmospheric air should be clean from biological, chemical, and physical contaminates at any time
- farms, food processing plants, abattoirs, hospitals, vaccine/drug manufacturing industries should not be contaminating the air
What is the Clean Water Act of 1972?
states that water bodies should be clean from biological, chemical, and physical contaminates
- water used at farms, food production facilities, and abattoirs should be of potable standard
What is the Solid Waste Disposal Act 1965?
soil, water, and environment should not be contaminated by solid wastes and manure (animal manure included in 2015)
What is the Pesticides Act of 1947?
all pesticides used should be registered, have determined tolerance thresholds, and should not contaminate food, water, the environment, animals, or humans
What governing bodies are responsible for human health at the workplace and in general public?
OSHA - human occupational health
CDC - disease monitoring and surveillance, human disease control and eradication
What does OSHA do? How?
regulates the safety of workers in the workplace
- monitors workplaces so that workers are not exposed to biological, chemical, or physical hazards
- ensures employers provide safe workplaces and PPE for all employees
What does the CDC do?
develops, tests, applies, and regulates human disease detection, surveillance, prevention, control, eradication, and health education
What are the 6 major causes of disease that the CDC has surveillance programs for?
- foodborne diseases
- antimicrobial resistance
- environmental health issues
- waterborne diseases
- wastewater
- zoonosis
What 9 pathogens are targeted by the CDC’s foodborne diseases active surveillance?
- Campylobacter
- Cryptosporidium
- Cyclospora
- Listeria
- Salmonella
- Shigella
- STEC
- Vibrio
- Yersinia
What 5 aspects of food have regulatory laws?
- packaging
- labeling
- allergen declaration
- recall
- food transport
What 6 things within food products must be honestly labeled? Why?
- weight/volume
- origin (country, company, plant address, batch number)
- composition content (high fiber, low fat)
- food allergens
- expiration date
- how to handle (refrigerate)
facilitates tracking of food from interstate to international trade and makes it easier to recall food unfit to consume if substandard
When will food contents be considered adulterated and prohibited from being sold?
food that is not packaged correctly and allows things to come into contact with food during the packaging process
What 4 packaging materials are allowed by regulation to contact food?
- adhesives, additives, and compounds of coatings
- paper and paperboard
- polymers
- adjuvants, production aids, sanitizers of packaging material (hydrogen peroxide)
How is honest labeling approved?
stamp from a regulatory body
What is the Food Transportation Act of 2005?
states that sanitary transportation is aimed to avoid adulteration of food products
- food safety from farm to fork includes transportation
What must be fulfilled during animal movement?
travel rules and 5 freedoms of animal welfare
What 7 travel rules must be upheld during animal transportation?
- ID/passport
- health certificate (vet inspection)
- avoid willful abuse of animals (electric prod)
- allow rest after long travel times (28 hr) and adequate feed and water
- never go over the maximum load limit per truck
- good conditions of trailer/vehicle
- only allow proper animals to enter the slaughterhouse (no 4 Ds)
What happens when food is stored in unsanitary conditions?
will be considered adulterated even if the food is not contaminated
What should be considered for proper food storage?
- design of storage facility to minimize the risk of contamination, pests, and waste
- construct storage facility of materials that can be readily cleaned and maintained
- maintain storage facility to prevent external contamination
- separate storage area from worker break areas and raw product from processed product
- maintain proper storage environment (temperature, humidity)
What is Codex Alimentarius?
intergovernmental and stakeholder organization to make a consensus on food laws internationally
- made up of 188 countries
What are the 2 missions of Codex Alimentarius? What does the World Trade Organization recognize it as?
- collect internationally recognized food laws for uniformity or harmonization for all countries
- dispute resolution concerning food safety and consumer protection
an international reference point for the resolution of disputes concerning food safety and consumer protection
What 7 standards does food have to fulfill for Codex approval?
- honest food labeling
- must have less than 5% food additives
- contaminants must be below tolerances for radionuclides, alfatoxins, and other mycotoxins
- pesticides and chemical residues must be below maximum limits
- risk assessment procedures determine the safety of foods derived from biotechnology
- food hygiene
- analysis and sampling must ensure produced food is pure and safe
What does Codex set for foods?
maximum residue limits (MRL)
What does WOAH (OIE) do?
develops standards for animal health, welfare, and biologics
- sample types, transport, diagnosis, and handling for animal disease
- control approaches
What policies does WOAH (OIE) develop and hold standards for?
LIVE ANIMALS
- animal disease surveillance
- improved animal health services
- animal disease control
- endangered animal preservation
- animal welfare
What does the World Trade Organization require for its member countries?
uniform international regulations and standards
What is the World Trade Organization built upon?
foundations of Codex and WOAH (OIE)
- Codex: harmonization of regulations of food laws
- OIE: harmonization of regulation accomplished through publication of standards targeting animal health
When are countries automatically eligible for animal, food, and plant trade?
if they fulfill the WOAH (OIE), Codex, and IPPC standards/requirements
- overseen by World Trade Organization
What are the main 2 problems with World Trade Organization standards?
- How do ensure that your country’s consumers are being supplied with food that is safe to eat and safe by the standards you consider appropriate?
- How can you ensure that strict health and safety regulations are not being used as an excuse for protecting domestic producers?
What 4 solutions are used to avoid problems encountered during involvement in the international trade of food, animal, and plants in WTO?
- separate agreement on food safety and animal and plant health standards
- if a country applies international standards, it is less likely to be challenged legally in the WTO than if it set its own standards
- members of WTO have adopted the use of international standards foe OIE for animal health, Codex for food, and IPPC for plant health**
- WTO requires member countries to remove technical barriers to trade agreements such that domestic standards, testing, and procedures that are obstacles for trade between countries
