The Food and Drug Administration will be holding two more public meetings on the recently released Proposed Rules to Establish Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption and for Current Good Manufacturing Practice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food. These two meetings are in addition to the already announced public meeting on the proposals scheduled for February 28 – March 1, 2013, in Washington, D.C.

The dates for the Chicago, IL and Portland, OR, meetings are posted below.

Chicago, IL, March 11, 2013 (8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.) and March 12, 2013 (8:30 a.m. – 12 noon)

Portland, OR, March 27, 2013 (8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.) and March 28, 2013 (8:30 a.m. – 12 noon)

The Federal Register notice announcing these meetings and providing registration information will publish shortly.

FDA is announcing these public meetings to discuss the proposed rules to establish standards for growing, harvesting, packing, and holding of produce for human consumption (the produce safety proposed rule) and for current good manufacturing practice and hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls for human food (the preventive controls proposed rule), which are the first of several proposed rules that would establish the foundation of, and central framework for, the modern food safety system envisioned by Congress in the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). These meetings are also designed to solicit oral and public comments from stakeholders on the proposed rules, inform the public about the rulemaking process (including how to submit comments, data and other information to the rulemaking dockets), and respond to questions about the proposed rules.

Registration for these meetings will open at the time the meeting announcements appear in the Federal Register.