Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP)

New Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) regulations require that importers must have a program in place to verify that their foreign suppliers are producing food in a manner that provides the same level of public health protection as the preventive controls or produce safety regulations, as appropriate, and to ensure that the supplier’s food is not adulterated and is not misbranded with respect to allergen labeling.

Topics will include:

• Introduction to the FSVP
• The FSVP Process
• Preventive Controls and Produce Safety Session
• Hazard Analysis
• Evaluation and Approval of Foreign Supplier
• Foreign Supplier Verification
• Reevaluation Foreign Supplier Performance
• Importer Identification
• Importance of Records
• FDA Oversight

Importers must establish and follow written procedures to ensure that they import foods only from foreign suppliers approved based on an evaluation of the risk posed by the imported food and the supplier’s performance or, when necessary on a temporary basis, from unapproved suppliers whose foods are subjected to adequate verification activities before being imported.

Importers are required to develop, maintain and follow an FSVP for each food brought into the United States and the foreign supplier of that food. If the importer obtains a certain food from a few different suppliers, a separate FSVP would be required for each of those suppliers.

The training will also cover hazard analysis, evaluation of food risk and supplier performance, supplier verification, corrective actions and exemptions and modified standards.

Participants will receive an official FSPCA FSVP certificate of completion after the class.

For more information on this rule, please visit the FDA webpage here: http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/FSMA/ucm361902.htm

Please click the following for a downloadable flyer of the Food Safety class schedule: Food Safety Summer/Fall 2023 – NEW!