The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued revised food safety standards for state regulatory programs that oversee food facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold foods. These regulatory program standards also known as the Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards (MFRPS). Thus, these 2016 updates include newly defined terms, new sections and appendices, as well as updates to the current standards.

Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards are important components in establishing the national Integrated Food Safety System. The goal of the MFRPS is to implement a nationally integrated, risk-based, food safety system focused on protecting public health. The MFRPS establish a uniform basis for measuring and improving the performance of prevention, intervention, and response activities of manufactured food regulatory programs in the United States.

The program standards are designed to help federal and state agencies better direct their regulatory activities toward reducing foodborne illness hazards in plants that manufacture, process, pack or hold foods. MFRPS' were initially developed when FDA established a committee comprised of officials from FDA and state agencies responsible for the regulation and inspection of food facilities to develop a set of quality standards for manufactured food regulatory programs.

MFRPS is packed and composed of ten standards designed to protect the public from foodborne illness and injury. These elements include the program's regulatory foundation, staff training, inspection, quality assurance, food defense preparedness and response, foodborne illness and incident investigation, enforcement, education and outreach, resource management, laboratory resources, and program assessment.

"At their core, the Standards support the development of a robust, quality management system for how FDA and our regulatory partners help ensure uniform and consistent oversight of regulated industry. This investment results in a strengthened national food safety system and improved public health protection." -- a statement from Steven M. Solomon, DVM, MPH, Deputy Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs, Office of Regulatory Affairs, FDA