Conference for Food Protection

Amend Program Standard No. 9 to provide jurisdictions with clarification on what a regulatory agency must achieve to be listed as an active participant of the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards and how to meet and achieve Standard No 9.

The committee was charged with looking at an effective way of meeting the needs of state, local, and tribal jurisdictions with respect to the FDA's current approach to establishing timelines with meeting new Program Standards and self assessments.

Currently, a jurisdiction that has not yet completed its self assessment must meet any new requirements in a revised Standard in order to achieve conformance with that Standard. Jurisdictions that already meet a certain Standard before the changes go into effect have a specific deadline to meet the requirements to continue meeting the standard. For instance, changes to Standard No. 2 were approved at the 2006 CFP Biennial Meeting. The effective date of these changes was January 1, 2007. Jurisdictions that previously met Standard 2 had to implement the changes for any new staff hired after January 1, 2007 in order to continue meeting the Standard.

Due to the current language included in Standard No. 9, a jurisdiction would not be encouraged to participate in the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards due to the complex and often inability to complete the required self assessments in a two year time period.

The proposed language as submitted by the Program Standards Committee not only provides clarity on what a jurisdiction must complete to be listed as an active participant of the Program Standards, but also provides for flexibility and continued enhancement of a jurisdiction's food safety program within a reasonable time period.

that the Conference Chair send a letter to the FDA Commissioner requesting that Program Standard No. 9 be amended to read as specified in the attached document titled: Proposed Amendments to Standard No. 9 - Program Assessment.