Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA204)

[CommunityJedi22]

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) aims to reform the food safety approach of industries in the United States. The rule addresses different concerns of each sector in the food industry with a goal to minimize the potential impacts of foodborne illnesses and protect the economic well-being of the nation's food system.

• FSMA rules apply to all food businesses reporting under the FDA.
• Non-compliance to the provided rules may put the safety and intent of consumers at risk.
• FSMA emphasizes the need to develop comprehensive, science-based preventive controls and create a food safety program to reduce risks in food safety.

The 1WorldSync Product team compiled this video and the attached documents to help you understand and manage this important update. 

Attached Below:

FSMA 204 Video Deck with Links

FSMA 204 Sample Sheet

3 Steps to Use GDSN for FSMA Rule 204

Once you review the video and documents, please post questions in the comments area below.

[WellsDataSync]

Hello,

We would like to support FSMA 204 attributes via GDSN. For the attributes below, can you please tell me if they are all required to be populated, or can some be left blank?

• Regulation Type Code
• Regulation Act
• Regulation Agency
• Regulation Compliance Indicator
• Regulation Restrictions and Descriptors

Thank you!

[Val_P]

Hello @WellsDataSync and welcome back to the Community!

We will be researching this further for you and will reach out with more details shortly. Thank you for your patience in the meantime.

[Julie]

Hello @WellsDataSync and thanks for reaching out!

I've attached below the definitions found in the Current IM Participant Dictionary (IMPD):

1. Regulation Type Code - Valid value for a regulation. Used in conjunction with Regulation Compliance Indicator. Used to communicate to the buyer the regulation to which the product status is applicable and whether or not the buyer can sell or distribute the product. Used by the buyer to derive the legal product category to determine the proper handling and storage.
2. Regulatory Act - The name given to the requirement assigned by the regulatory agency. 
3. Regulatory Agency - The required information is the name of the specific entity in charge of issuing the permit to a company.
4. Regulation Compliance Indicator - The indicator specifying whether the product is compliant, not compliant or not applicable to the regulation associated with the Regulation Type Code. Used to indicate to the buyer whether the product is in compliance with a specific regulation. Used in conjunction with the Regulation Type Code.
5. Regulation Restrictions and Descriptors - A textual detail needed by trading partners that explains any restrictions and/or descriptors explaining any information helpful about a regulation.

If you'd like to support FSMA 204 attributes via GDSN it is recommended to populate all attributes as seen in the examples provided in the PDF document above. Thank you!

[Jezebel]

Should we be adding the attributes to the base level of a hierarchy?

[Val_P]

Hello @Jezebel, thanks for continuing the use of the community.

Yes, please, adding the FSMA attributes needs to be done on the base levels of your hierarchies, unless requested otherwise by a specific retailer. Thank you and happy Friday!

[nancyVigo]

@CommunityJedi22 , @Val_P, @Julie ...good morning!

Are these attributes already present and ready to fill out in 1WS?

Thanks!

[CommunityLord_]

Hello @nancyVigo 

These attributes can be found in Item Management under the Regulatory Information section from the Most Popular playlist.

Thanks,

[nancyVigo]

@CommunityLord_, thank you!

[CommunityLord_]

Hello @nancyVigo 

Always a pleasure and we are here if you need our help.

Thanks,

[Scott_Brown]

All,

Here is a helpful one-page document from GS1 US about the 3 steps to Use GDSN for FSMA Rule 204. It is a handy companion to the webinar shared in this thread.

Thanks, 

S

[nancyVigo]

Good morning team, thank you all for your guidance, as always! 🙂

[Val_P]

Hello and Happy Friday @nancyVigo! 🙂

Thank you for letting us know this helped. We always appreciate your feedback, collaboration and support and we are here to help where needed.

[nancyVigo]

Good afternoon team!

Since our company does not have any products on the FTL, would we need to fill out the Regulatory Information section?

If so, what would we need to fill out to let customers know that we do not fall under that particular category?

Thanks in advance!

[Scott_Brown]

Nancy,

This is a great question. If your product is not a food, you need do nothing. If FSMA is clearly not applicable such as for bottled water, you may not need to provide the information unless a retailer asks. However, if your product is close or a derivative of one that is one the FTL, then you need to sent the master data elements to help the retailers understand their FDMA204 requirements.

To accomplish this, you would follow the instructions on the one pager for 03B if your product is not on the FTL or 03C if it is on the FTL but has a kill step applied. 

You can get more detail in the video link at the top of this thread.

Thanks,
S

[nancyVigo]

@Scott_Brown, thanks for the prompt response!

Our products are all processed in our warehouse or imported...nothing fresh.

Would I still need to fill out information for them?

[Scott_Brown]

The FTL is not just about fresh product, although those products are a large portion. There is a section of FSMA related to importer and how they handle products.

You should talk with your regulatory folks about FSMA and how they see it fitting your products.

[nancyVigo]

@Scott_Brown, thanks again for your input...I will forward it to our team and go from there.

Have a great afternoon!

[nancyVigo]

Good afternoon team!

Before moving with uploading our items to the FUSE to add the new FSMA204 requirements, I wanted to ask a couple of questions:

As you can see in the screen shots, the information taken from the GDSN Master Data document does not match what I see in 1WS as far as the requirements needed.

Also, I am attaching a section of the FUSE where we found what we believe to be the new attributes.  Please, correct me if this is not the area.

Finally, there is a screen shot showing a message from Sysco asking us to comply with FSMA204, but we are unable to do it from the portal.  Will the attributes be synchronized with Sysco as soon as we upload the sheet?

Thanks in advance for your patience and guidance. 🙂

 

  

[Val_P]

Hello @nancyVigo, welcome back to the customer community. Thanks for reaching out.

1. The view in the video is slightly different from the current Item Management view (a new Item Management version has been released since the video was recorded), however you can find all attributes in the interface by activating the Food and Beverage Products Playlist and then using the GTIN Quick Search to easily locate them.

 2. In the FUSE Load Sheet you can find the 4 attributes as follows:

Regulation Type Code  -  Column NVB 

Regulatory Act  -  Column NVC

Regulation Compliance Indicator  -  Column NVF

Regulation Restrictions and Descriptors  -  Column NVJ for the attribute itself and NVK for its corresponding language.

Please note in FUSE the formatting for language is "en -- English" for example for English. It is best to Export a file with Valid Values enabled so that the FUSE file gives you a dropdown with the options available for you:

3. Yes, as long as the items you need to update for Sysco are published to them from Item Management, then information will be sent automatically. For GLN 0074865000000 for Sysco Corporation, their subscription runs every 4 hours, so they should have the information available 4 hours after you update it in Item Management.

Thank you! 😊

[nancyVigo]

@Val_P, you are amazing!  Thank you for such detailed information that will make it easier for us to be able to add the new attributes. 🙂

[Val_P]

It's always a please, @nancyVigo. We will be here if you need us for this or anything else. Thank you! 🙂

[nancyVigo]

@Val_P, good morning!

I do have one more question that was asked my a team member who is helping with the FUSE upload.

He has been hiding all the extra attributes and the lines that say "More" to make the list a little cleaner for us to be able to fill out only what is needed.

His question is: whenever we insert the information on the particular row and copy & paste for the rest of the items by row, will it copy & past all the rows that we have hidden, including the "More?"  If so, will it be better just to copy & past the information by each item?

Thanks again for all the help!

[Val_P]

Good morning @nancyVigo, it's great chatting with you again. 

Please add the FSMA204 details on the "Item" row only. The "More" row is used for additional attributes that cannot be added in the "Item" row as they contain more than 1 value (different nutrients and allergens are such examples and cannot all be added in the same cell, hence the need for additional rows). As long as the "More" rows are hidden and not deleted, that is perfectly fine.

Thank you and have a wonderful day and rest of the week ahead!

[nancyVigo]

@Val_P, thanks for that info.  So, it would not be a good idea to fill down the info all at one time since it will fill out the "More" lines, even if they're hidden?

[Val_P]

Hello @nancyVigo, thank you for the follow-up. 

The "More" row should only be filled out for attributes with more than one value, otherwise they should be left blank. Here are a couple of examples:

Adding more than one value for the same attribute is not applicable to FSMA204. The value should be added once per item and added in the "Item" row only, please, to not cause syncing issues with your retailers. 

You can add the value for all items you have in that spreadsheet at once, but only on the "Item" row, please. Thank you! 🙂

[nancyVigo]

@Val_P, once again...THANK YOU!

You have helped us understand FUSE so much better with your instructions and images.

Have a fantastic day! 🙂

[George_C]

It's always a pleasure, @nancyVigo. We will be here if you need us for this or anything else. Thank you! 

[nancyVigo]

@George_C, thank you! 🙂

[nancyVigo]

Good morning team!

We have uploaded the required FSMA information in the FUSE sheet, while hiding all the attributes that were not needed.

What is the best way to upload the completed sheet to 1WS?  Could we see a preview before we actually send it through?

Thanks in advance for all the help and patience with our team as we navigate new waters. 🙂

[Theo]

Hello @nancyVigo ,it’s good chatting with you again.

I have reviewed your request, and the preview will be the FUSE file itself. Once you have updated the file with all the information you need, you can attempt to import it into Item Management. If there is an issue with the FUSE file, you will be able to see it in the Message Center within Item Management.

[nancyVigo]

@Theo, thank you!  We will try to import it today and hope for the best! 🙂

[nancyVigo]

Good morning team!

We filled out the required FSMA attributes and uploaded it to IM.  It came back with error messages from apparent attributes we missed.

Our team, then,  picked one item to upload from the FUSE sheet and selected the "Food & Beverage" Playlist, which gave us a more concise list of attributes.  However, the FSMA attributes have now changed column names (please, see attached screen shot).

Would this playlist allow us to fill out the required information so that we can successfully upload it in IM?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Val_P]

Hello @nancyVigo, it's great chatting with you again.

Yes, please, the Food and Beverage Products Playlist allows you to populate all mandatory fields for the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) attributes in both Item Management directly or in the FUSE Load Sheet. 

Depending on which Playlists are chosen when exporting, the layout of the FUSE sheet will be slightly different and the colums will also vary.

One approach you can take is add the information on one item in the graphical user interface in Item Management directly and then export that item as a template for all other existing items as long as they are similar types of products. This is sometimes easier than adding the information all at once in FUSE as the template item will point out which columns need to be filled out.

I hope this helps. Please let us know if any issues persist and we would be delighted to help where needed.

[nancyVigo]

@Val_P, thanks for the clarification!  My team has signed up for the FUSE and FSMA webinars in March...we can't wait to see what we can learn! 🙂

[Val_P]

It is always a please, @nancyVigo. We will be here in case you or your colleagues come across any issues. We are also looking forward to working with you. Thank you and have a wonderful day and rest of the week!

[nancyVigo]

@Val_P, thank you, you as well! 

[CommunityLord_]

Hi @nancyVigo 

We are always happy to help you.

Thanks,

[nancyVigo]

@CommunityJedi22, and I so appreciate your help! 🙂