New Inspection Program for the Nation's Seafood

Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a groundbreaking initiative to further ensure the safety of the Nation's seafood. Known as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP), the plan requires seafood processors to adopt a program that identifies potential food-safety hazards and adopt controls specifically targeted to those hazards to prevent them from occurring or at least to minimize the likelihood of their occurrence. HACCP focuses on prevention of product contamination rather than on detection of contaminated products. Verification that HACCP is in place and is working would be an added feature of FDA's current system of periodic mandatory inspections of processing plants to produce a more effective system of ensuring the safety of seafood. FDA expects to finalize the rule in early 1995. The proposed rule, published for public comment on January 28, 1994, proposed an effective date of 1 year from the issuance of the final rule