The Food and Drug Administration has announced the accreditation of two more certification bodies under the FDA’s Accredited Third-Party Certification Program. SGS North America Inc. and NSF Certification LLC have each become accredited for preventive controls for human food, juice hazard analysis and critical control point, and seafood HACCP, while NSF has also been accredited for produce safety.
Accredited third-party certification bodies can conduct food safety audits and issue certifications of foreign food facilities (including farms) and the human and animal foods they produce. Such certifications can be used by importers to establish eligibility for participation in the Voluntary Qualified Importer Program (though this program is not yet operational; click here for more information), which offers expedited review of food entries.
In addition, while the FDA does not generally require certification as a condition of entry, in certain circumstances it can require certification of imported products or the facilities that produce them, typically to prevent the entry of a potentially harmful food.
For more information on FDA certifications, please contact Shelly Garg at (305) 894-1043.
This article was originally published in the Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg Trade Report on March 27, 2019.