FDA finalizes long-awaited fresh-cut produce guidance as outbreaks put prevention in focus

By Scarlett Salem, MS, MPH

Nearly eight years after issuing a draft, FDA has finalized guidance for ready-to-eat fresh-cut produce processors implementing FSMA preventive controls. The final guidance narrows its scope while providing considerably more detail on how processors can approach biological hazards, supply-chain controls and day-to-day implementation.

The added specificity provides industry with greater clarity — but could also offer FDA investigators a clearer benchmark for assessing compliance.

This AgencyIQ analysis examines how FDA’s expectations have evolved, what the guidance means in practice and the considerations processors should be evaluating now.

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