WASHINGTON, D.C.  — Acting on a Congressional mandate of four years ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has completed three more long awaited final rules (of seven), bringing the total to five so far designed to force the food industry to adopt sweeping changes primarily aimed at averting foodborne illnesses.

Two rules were finalized last August, preventive controls in human and animal foods, and the remaining two – sanitary transport of foods and intentional adulteration – will be announced by the end of March 2016 and on May 31, respectively.

The FSMA standards are the biggest overhaul of the government’s food safety oversight in 70 years. “It’s been a long and arduous task, to say the least,” said Michael Taylor, the FDA’s top food safety enforcer, following years of him traveling the country to hear the concerns of small- and large-scale farmers and consumers.

The three new rules announced Nov. 13 cover Produce Safety, Accredited Third-party Certification and Foreign Supplier Verification Programs (FSVP) for Importers of Food for Humans and Animals. The rules follow years of deadly outbreaks of food poisonings such as E. coli-tainted spinach, cantaloupes with listeria, contaminated farm greens and sour caramel apples.

“The recent multistate outbreak of salmonella in imported cucumbers that has killed four Americans, hospitalized 157 and sickened hundreds more, is exactly the kind of outbreak these new rules help prevent,” Taylor said. “The rules will help better protect consumers from foodborne illness and strengthen their confidence that modern preventive practices are in place no matter where in the world the food is produced.”

The FDA said the new rules aim to ensure the food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing outbreaks. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 48 million Americans (more than 1 in 6) get sick each year from foodborne diseases. Of these, the CDC says more than 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die.

From 1996-2010, there were about 131 produce-related outbreaks resulting in 14,350 illnesses, 1,382 hospitalizations and 34 deaths, the latest CDC data show.

The Produce Safety Rule establishes for the first time new standards on how fruit and vegetables are grown, harvested, packed and stored, reducing contamination risks for farmers. New water management standards require farmers to test the water used for growing crops for the presence of any harmful bacteria, as well as to monitor and train employees on personal health and hygiene practices.

Farmers must monitor wildlife and domesticated animal encroachment on their fields and maintain equipment, tools and buildings from contamination, as well. In addition to the produce rules, manufacturers must create plans to identify and prevent contamination risks in processing plants.

As part of the FSVP rules, importers will be held accountable for verifying imported foods meet U.S. safety standards. With this, the FDA has established a final rule for Accredited Third-party Certification groups that will conduct mandated food safety audits, such as sampling and testing of foods and reviewing food safety records at foreign food facilities.

One organization, the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance (FARFA), is saying the new rules for produce safety will unjustly hurt the small-scale local community farmer.

The rule “is going to be very damaging for the growing local food movement,” said Judith McGeary, founder and executive director of the Austin, Texas-based FARFA. “Unfortunately, the agency chose to ignore the comments it received about the unrealistic standard of irrigation water, as well as the scope of the qualified exemptions.

“On the positive side, the final rule retains the changes relating to the use of compost and manure, as well as adding some clarification on grazing and the frequency required for water testing.

“In practical terms, this rule pressures grain and livestock farmers to avoid diversification, harming farmers finan-cially and discouraging environmental responsible land use,” McGeary said. “From a food safety standpoint, it does not make sense to treat the small-sale production of produce the same as large-scale production of produce, simply because the same person is producing other types of food as well. What sane person would start a small farm, knowing that he or she might have to comply with thousands of dollars of extra expense based on a bureaucrat’s say-so and very little due process? This rule creates significant disincentives to farming, at a time when we need more farmers, not fewer.”

Jim Gorny, vice president for food safety and technology for the 2,500-member Produce Marketing Assoc., told the Washington Post, “It’s going to be a sea change for the industry … A rising tide lifts all boats, and everybody’s going to have minimum standards they’ll have to abide by. This is certainly a big step forward.”

Will Rodger, a spokesman for the Ameri-can Farm Bureau Federation, said, “There are concerns on the complexity of the rule, especially on the water quality requirements; however, we are just beginning to fully analyze the rule and are assessing the practical impact on farmers.”

Still facing the FDA is how fast officials and inspectors can begin implementing the new rules – and new funding legislation is needed to do that, the agency said. Currently, Congress has only approved $45 million. The White House has requested $110 million for 2016, based on the FDA’s requirements.

If no new funding is approved, the FDA will use what current resources it has, officials told Farm World, but some measures may be delayed until new fund-ing becomes available. There are varying compliance dates for the new rules and several qualified exemptions for smaller farms and farms that sell produce locally.

To review the latest rules, visit www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/FSMA