FOOD SAFETY - REGULATORY AFFAIRS SPECIALIST 26 25 FOOD SAFETY Regulatory Affairs Specialist Have you ever thought about where the information on a food label comes from? How about who regulates our food to keep us safe? You couldn’t just make a cookie with any ingredient you wanted and sell it in a grocery store. Things like what kind, how much and how it is marketed are all regulated by the government. In the United these regulations are created and enforced by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). There are a lot of regulations and knowing if your product follows all of them is a big task for an already busy food safety department. That’s why companies rely on Regulatory Affairs Specialists to keep their products in check. 1. Regulatory Affairs Specialists Regulate Food Regulatory affairs specialists ensure that companies’ food products meet all applicable regulations, such as those established by the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. They stay on top of new applicable laws, provide updates to other teams (e.g. QA, Marketing, R&D and Sales) and affect new and existing products. They provide label and packaging artwork reviews for a variety of food products entering into the food market. It is their job to guarantee that nutritional labels on packaging are current and adhere to the regulations. This involves going through ingredients and verifying that they are listed correctly on the label. Additionally, they are responsible for providing excellent customer service and maintaining positive business relationships with both internal and external customers and vendors. Overall, regulatory affairs specialists are responsible for ensuring that food adheres to regulatory standards. For example, a regulatory affair specialist working with frozen French fries must use 85g as a reference amount used on the nutritional label. 2. Regulatory Affairs Specialists are Knowledgeable About Regulations Around the world, different countries have food regulations which protect the health and safety of their citizens. These regulations constantly change and are updated frequently because world values and technology change as well. In Canada, food regulations are governed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Companies stay current with food regulatory changes in technology because doing the opposite results in expensive fines or the company being shut down! Therefore, the task of staying on top of changing food regulations in food companies is left to regulatory affairs specialists. To keep up with changes and not get overwhelmed, they use a few tricks to properly learn about regulations. Some tricks include becoming members of key trade associations and groups, participating in conferences and enrolling in newsletters from lawmakers. Regulatory Affairs Specialist Making sure that manufactures are following food regulations What is the purpose of regulations? The United States regulatory system is designed to protect and advance the public interest in the following areas: • Health. • Safety and security. • The quality of the environment. • The social and economic well-being of US citizens. Regulations are a form of law. They have binding legal effect and usually Photo by Imagesbybarbara/E+/GettyImages
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