On March 14, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a final rule that formally extends the compliance dates for the agricultural water provisions of the Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA). Larger farms are now required to comply by January 2022, while small farms have until January 2023 and very small farms until January 2024.
From the FDA announcement; “These compliance dates have been extended while the FDA considers how best to protect public health while addressing widespread concerns about the complexity of the agricultural water requirements and the practicality of implementing them across a wide variety of farms, water sources and uses.”
FSMA was enacted into law on January 4, 2011 and has been undergoing a long implementation since that time. The delays and extensions involved in finalizing the regulations are indicative of the complexity of the food systems that FSMA seeks to regulate.