As previously covered on this blog, in November 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finalized The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) rule on Accredited Third-Party Certification that established a program for the accreditation of third-party certification bodies to conduct food safety audits and to certify that foreign food facilities and food produced by such facilities meet applicable FDA food safety requirements.

On January 31, 2018, the FDA announced that ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) – an organization jointly owned by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the American Society for Quality (ASQ) – became the first accreditation body to receive FDA recognition under the voluntary Accredited Third-Party Certification Program, created by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). FDA explained that it recognized ANAB for a five-year term because it met the applicable FDA requirements, which were validated through application review and on-site assessment.  Additional information on this development is available in our client alert available here.