As the United Nations (UN) debuts its first official World Food Safety Day on June 7, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) National Accreditation Board (ANAB) helps support the 2019 theme: food safety is everyone's business.
The UN has designated two of its agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to spread awareness and statistics about global food safety. Nutritious food can be the lifeline for healthy families, but contaminated meals can be a source of disease and death. The UN reports that an estimated three million people in both developed and developing nations die each year from food and waterborne disease. Unsafe food is also costly, amounting to $95 billion in productivity loss associated with illness, disability, and premature death in low and middle income economies, WHO reports.
There are many components to a healthy and safe meal, and many variables involved before food becomes a meal. ANSI/ANAB accreditation for food safety provides assurance that standards, goods, personnel, and services meet requirements throughout the global supply chain, engendering consumer trustand supporting competitiveness.
As illustrated in this video, "accreditation"including accreditation for food safety can be compared to layers of an onion. The center of an onion can represent a product, the next layers represent the manufacturer, then the certification body or lab, which test and verify the safety of products. Finally, the outer layer or the skin is the accreditation body, which assures that the certification body conforms to international standards.
In 2018, the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) was unifed with ANSI's accreditation services division, which state and local governments have relied on to demonstrate the qualifications of food safety handlers. As World Food Safety Day reminds us, there is no food security without food safety.
Read more about ANSI/ANAB Accreditation for Food Safety:
Laws in California, Illinois, Arizona, West Virginia, Texas, New Mexico, and Hawaii, and some local jurisdictions require food handlers within their limits to have a food-handling training certificate from an ANSI/ANAB accredited certificate program, demonstrating compliance with ASTM E2659, Standard Practice for Certificate Programs, an American National Standard.
Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)
ANSI/ANAB is a recognized FSMA accreditation body in accordance with FDA's final set of FSMA requirements. FSMA empowers the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to recognize accreditation bodies like ANSI to assess the competence of food safety certification bodies in accordance with the international standard, ISO/IEC 17065. ANSI/ANAB is also recognized by the FDA, in the FSMA program, as an accreditor of Management Systems certification bodies under ISO/IEC 17021, Conformity Assessment- Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems.
Twenty-six states have adopted a requirement that food protection managers hold certifications under the Conference for Food Protection's Standards for Accreditation of Food Protection Manager Certification Programs, for which ANSI/ANAB serves as an accreditation body.
Through its product certification accreditation program, ANSI/ANAB currently accredits 34 certification bodies that operate under a number of certification schemes dedicated to assure food safety, in accordance with ISO/IEC 17065, General requirements for bodies operating product certification systems.
Read more about ANSI Accreditation for Food Safety, and watch a brief video to learn how ANSI/ANAB accreditation provides food safety assurance.
Recent related news: ANSI/ANAB Accredits Quality Certification Services to Certify Foreign Food Supplies under U.S. FDA-FSMA Program