3M Food Safety has teamed up with The Acheson Group (TAG) for a monthly educational webinar series on the Food Safety Modernization Act (FMSA) to provide food-related businesses clearer understanding of compliance requirements and how they can manage and possibly reduce operational, regulatory and reputational risk. 

FSMA is the most extensive reform of food safety laws in the United States in more than 70 years. It was signed into law in 2011, but the first phase of final rules only recently took effect. Those rules, totaling 1,600 pages, include provisions relevant to the entire global food supply chain, from growers and processors to point of sale. They include requirements to maintain food safety plans, perform hazard analysis, institutionalize, monitor and verify the effectiveness of preventive controls for mitigating those hazards, take corrective actions and keep appropriate records.

Upcoming dates and topics include:

• ‘How to Build an Environmental Monitoring Program’ (March 21)
• ‘Preventive Controls for Human Food – What Does This Mean to Those Making Food for Animals?’ (April 5)
• ‘Foreign Supplier Verification Plan (FSVP) rule – Do I Need to Comply? If not – Who does?’ (May 3)

WHO: Host: John Wadie, 3M Food Safety U.S. marketing development manager, has over 30 years of food safety experience. He is a recognized authority on food quality and safety issues, having witnessed dramatic changes due to globalization, changing diets and increased consumer awareness and concern for the issue.

“This webinar series is addressing many questions and concerns food processors have about FSMA and how to best address them to ensure compliance with the new regulations,” said Wadie.

Presenter: Dr. David Acheson is the president and CEO of the Acheson Group, a consulting firm providing strategic advice, as well as recall and crisis management support to food companies and ancillary technology companies on a global basis on all matters relating to food safety and food defense. Dr. Acheson graduated from the University of London Medical School in 1980 and, following training in internal medicine and infectious diseases in the United Kingdom, moved to the New England Medical Center and Tufts University in Boston in 1987. As an Associate Professor at Tufts University, he undertook basic molecular pathogenesis research on foodborne pathogens, especially Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. Previously, Dr. Acheson was the Chief Medical Officer at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and a partner at Leavitt Partners managing the Global Food Safety Solutions group. He founded The Acheson Group in 2013.

“The FDA is seeking to adopt a more modern, preventive, and risk-based approach to food safety regulation,” said Acheson. “With this new approach comes many new requirements and deadlines. The goal of this webinar series is to unravel the mysteries of FSMA compliance.”