In the food industry, the importance of food sanitation and safety cannot be overemphasized. You owe it to your customers; you also owe it to yourselves if you want to stay in business in a sustained way.
Customers are increasingly careful and discriminating about the food they buy and consume for themselves and their families. Food items sold should not only be delicious and nutritious but also clean, sanitary, safe, and compliant with the highest standards of hygiene.
One of the ways customers assure themselves of the safety and purity of their food purchases is by looking at the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) certification in product labeling/packaging.
The FDA or the Food and Drugs Administration is the government agency tasked to ensure that food — as well as medicines and drugs — sold in the local market are safe for consumption.
How does one get FDA certified?
Here are steps to take:
- Approach the Public Assistance Information and Compliance Section, obtain a registration form, and ask about requirements for registration.
- Prepare and gather all required papers.
- Go back to the FDA office to get your documents assessed to determine the amount to be paid for the registration process. You will be given a routing slip for the different stages of registration after paying.
- At its Product Services Division the FDA will evaluate the technical documents and labeling materials of the product.
- FDA will proceed with the actual evaluation to be conducted by certified food technologists.
- If the product meets FDA standards, it would be given a Certificate of Product Registration (CPR). Otherwise, it would be given a Letter of Denial (LOD) or a Notice of Deficiency (NOD).
- The CPR, LOD and NOD are distributed at the Releasing Section of the FDA.
For a more detailed discussion of the FDA registration process, click here …
How long does it take to get certified?
It could take several months because there is a long line of businesses securing FDA certificates. It also takes time for FDA technologists to go to an applicant’s factory, plant or laboratory to check on the facilities and production process. Here, every single product would need to be evaluated. It should be noted that a certificate needs to be issued for every product of a company.
To ensure that they pass FDA requirements, food companies will do well to seek help from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), which provides training and seminars on food processing and gives advice on important aspects like: prolonging product shelf life without use of preservatives and safe and practical ways of labeling and packaging of products.