Food hubs and the farmers who supply them will be significantly impacted by the new regulations FDA is promulgating under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) — in particular, the rules relating to produce safety and preventive controls. The rules are only in draft form now, and new drafts are due to be released this June. So it remains to be seen exactly how the exemptions will be defined. We will be looking closely at what changes, if any, are made to the exemptions for small businesses. Businesses that might qualify for the exemptions also should pay attention and plan ahead to minimize their regulatory burdens to the extent possible.
Under both the preventive controls and produce rule, businesses will be exempt from all or most requirements if their annual food sales are below certain dollar amounts. Both rules provide a qualified exemption from most of the requirements if a business’s average annual food sales are less than $500,000 and if the majority of its sales are direct to consumers or to local retailers or restaurants. The preventive controls rule also provides a qualified exemption for “very small” businesses, meaning those with annual food sales less than $250,000, $500,000 or $1 million (FDA has not yet decided which limit to use). Also, if a farming business’s annual food sales do not exceed $25,000, it would be completely exempt from the produce rule.
What food sales count toward these limits differs under the two rules. For the preventive controls rule, all food sales of affiliated companies count. In other words, all food sales of separate food processing or handling facilities under common ownership or control will be counted toward the exemption limit. In contrast, for purposes of the produce rule exemptions, the relevant food sales are those of a “farm,” which is defined as a physical place. Thus, as the produce rule is currently drafted, a farming business with multiple farms in different locations might qualify for an exemption on one farm, but not another, depending on the relative food sales from each farm.
When the rules are finalized, small food and farming businesses should consider whether they can structure their businesses or operations to avoid taking on more of a regulatory burden than necessary. It may be possible for a food hub enterprise to keep various parts of the operation under separate ownership and control so that their total food sales will not be aggregated for purposes of determining whether any one facility is exempt from the preventive controls rule. Similarly, a farming business with more than one farm location should consider the exemption criteria when planning what crops to plant on each farm. Of course, such considerations will have to be weighed against business needs and practical concerns.
We will be monitoring this issue as the FSMA rules continue to take shape. If you would like to discuss strategies you might employ in your small food or farming business to plan ahead for FSMA, feel free to contact me or Jason at (888) 908-4959 or info@foodlawfirm.com.
