TraceGains Inc.

TraceGains Assists Food Manufacturers with FDA Foreign Supplier Verification Rule

TraceGains Assists Food Manufacturers with FDA Foreign Supplier Verification Rule

 

Westminster, CO -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/06/2013 -- Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration highlights why it is important that Americans do everything they can to help ensure that foods exported to the United States are safe for American families. TraceGains assists food and beverage manufacturers that imported raw ingredients they use are compliant with their specifications and with supporting documentation for the ingredients. TraceGains is prepared to assist food manufacturers to meet compliance with regulations administered by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) including the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and Foreign Supplier Verification rule.

Hamburg, explains in a recent blog, “Every day, there is a good chance that some of the food you are eating came from another country. Fifteen percent of the food we eat, including nearly 50 percent of the fresh fruit and 20 percent of vegetables, is imported each year.

The Foreign Supplier Verification rule will require importers to verify that foreign suppliers are producing food in a manner consistent with U.S. standards. Under the proposed rule, in general, importers would be required to identify potential hazards associated with each food and verify that appropriate steps have been taken to adequately control those hazards.

The Accredited Third Party Certification proposed rule would establish a system to strengthen the quality and credibility of safety audits and certifications for food exported to the United States.

These two proposed rules build on two other FSMA rules proposed earlier this year focused on ensuring the safety of produce and food facilities.

About TraceGains
TraceGains (http://www.tracegains.com) is for quality, purchasing, product development, and other departments, that are burdened with manually managing suppliers and documents. Supplier documentation storage, whether in file cabinets or in digital formats, may satisfy regulatory retention requirements, but does little to systematically unlock the wealth of business, compliance, and regulatory information they contain and you require on a daily basis to operate successfully.

By automatically analyzing and scorecarding supplier-provided documentation as it is received—such as certificates of analysis, qualification questionnaires, audit documents and their results, certifications (Kosher, Organic, etc.), insurance certificates, allergen questionnaires, and other import requirements (COOL, C-TPAT, FSMA, GFSI), among others—TraceGains helps food and nutraceutical manufacturers and ingredient processors automate document management, meet regulatory and industry compliance requirements, identify best and worst suppliers, source better with less risk, automatically raise product quality, and painlessly perform or participate in audits, all without needing to involve the IT department to help with complex technology.

Some of the food industry categories which have observed significant benefits using TraceGains include baking mixes, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, snack foods, confectionery, dairy, salad dressings, herbs & seasonings, flavors, dips, glazes & marinades, cheese processing and manufacturing, frozen foods, breakfast cereals, dietary supplements, Meals Ready to Eat (MREs), convenience foods, and restaurant chains. Follow TraceGains on Twitter at @tracegains.

TraceGains, Inc.
http://www.tracegains.com
Marc Simony
Director of Marketing
pr@tracegains.com
720-465-9400