FDA Releases New Food-Safety Rules

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revised Model Food Code now requires foodservice institutions, retailers and restaurants to have a certified food protection manager at the unit level, Nation’s Restaurant News reports. The Model Food Code is a recommendation that states, counties or cities can adopt into law.

The supplement to the Model Food Code clarifies food safety responsibilities of a retailer’s or restaurant’s “person in charge,” and also how long a business has to fix Food Code violations.

“The FDA is recommending that states and local jurisdictions incorporate into their retail food safety codes and ordinances a requirement that food establishments employ at least one certified food protection manager,” said Stephen King, a spokesman for the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

“Most, if not all, jurisdictions will have to take some action — policy setting, rulemaking or legislation — to make binding the revised provisions of the Food Code,” he said.

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