The Food Safety Modernization Act moves the FDA away from its previous role of responding to adulterated food to a more modern one of requiring companies to stop contamination before it happens by looking for the places where things can go wrong and fixing them.
The Act also allows the agency to issue mandatory recalls and hire more food-safety inspectors.
The FDA will need to draft regulations to enforce the new law.
Some of the changes the Act puts into place:
| Before | Now | |
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| Surveillance | Under the FDA's original statute from 1938, the focus was on responding to adulterated food once it was discovered. | Under the new rules, the FDA's focus shifts to stopping outbreaks before they start, by requiring farmers to address places in production where contamination might occur and to require processors to implement written food-safety plans. |
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| Enforcement | The FDA couldn't force a company to recall tainted food; it could only seek a voluntary recall. | When needed, the FDA can order the recall of tainted food. |
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| Specific targets | The FDA had to treat all foods the same, despite the fact that some are more likely to become contaminated than others. | FDA can develop regulations that focus on the highest-risk foods, including fruits, vegetables and imports. |
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| Inspections | The FDA was able to inspect fewer than 20% of domestic food facilities and 1% of foreign food imports. More than half of food facilities have gone five or more years without a federal inspection, according to a 2010 report from the Health and Human Services inspector general. | The FDA will be able to hire 2,500 more field safety inspectors and food-safety experts by 2014 and increase substantially domestic and foreign inspections. The riskiest domestic facilities will be inspected every three years, beginning in 2015. |
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| Records checks | For most plants, when the FDA conducted an inspection, it could only require a spot check of what was happening that day. | The FDA will have access to the food-safety plan, records and test results that are linked to the safety plan. |
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| Exemptions | Big and small farms and producers were treated the same under the statute. | Farmers who primarily sell to farmers' markets or to restaurants, and who sell less than $500,000 a year, don't have to follow the new regulations. |
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