The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act1 (FSMA) significantly overhauled the statutory tools used by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to meet its public health mandate, many of which had not changed for more than 70 years. The law focuses on preventing foodborne illness but also strengthens the agency's ability to detect and respond to food safety issues from any source. Although none of the food safety episodes that (at least in part) prompted the law's passage resulted from acts of terrorism,2 Congress included in FSMA a number of provisions intended to address the threat that terrorism could pose to the food supply. This article introduces 4 of those provisions, discusses the status of each one's implementation, and offers a recommendation for addressing a major impediment to effective implementation of the law.
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