Compliance for the cornerstone rule under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) begins on September 19, 2016. Hopefully this does not come as a surprise and simply as a gentle reminder to complete your Hazard Analysis and Preventive Control Plans for your distribution centers, warehouses, central kitchens, packing plants, manufacturing and processing facilities.

Cynthia Brazzel, director of member relations and advocacy for the western region at FMI, visited with Cal Mart about a month ago in Calistoga, CA.

Every day our government relations team works to shape public policy on the federal, state and local levels. I can’t think of a better way to directly affect the way policy is written in the states than to elect grocers to the state legislature.

FMI recently held its State Issues Retreat in Middleburg, Virginia, hosting grocery state associations and representatives from several FMI member companies. Among the speakers at the meeting, participants heard from Doug McKalip, Senior Advisor to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who has responsibility within USDA for the GMO disclosure issue. He provided an overview of the agency’s potential framework for implementation of the recently passed bioengineered food disclosure legislation (P.L. 114-216).