They say, there are many roads that lead to Rome. By the same token there are various options to ensure your company is FSMA compliant. Here are the best options:
Option 1: Get A Consultant To Do It For You
There are several consultants and law-firms willing to help you out in terms of FSMA compliance. Usually it will cost you a lot of money and you will get procedures and forms which are based off a template they have designed. As with all things a one-size-fits-all approach is most likely not going to make you overly happy. Hiring a consultant is not only expensive, but very often you will not get procedure which are really tailored to the exact situation of your organization.
Total cost: $10,000
Time frame: 3-6 months
Procedures tailored to your organization: Maybe
Most efficient process: No
Option 2: Follow official FDA approved training
Following the official FDA approved training is a requirement if you have no relevant working experience, no formal education or other training in the area of food safety and food defence. In all other cases, it will only bring you a certificate and an understanding of the FSMA rules. However, the official FDA approved training is not aimed at helping you create a proper implementation plan, nor does it provide useful templates. You will get a highly standardized curriculum over 2-2.5 days – which we usually refer to as “2.5 Days of Death by PowerPoint”.
Total cost: $1,500 per relevant FSMA module
Time frame: 1 -2 months
Procedures tailored to your organization: No
Most efficient process: No
Option 3: Figure It Out Yourself
If you have enough time, you might go to the FDA website and read through all the material you can lay your hands on. We can guarantee you there is so much information you can spend weeks and weeks, just reading all the stuff, and still have no clue what to do. This might seem the cheap solution, but if you factor in the time you will spend doing this and match that with your hourly rate, you are still going to spend a lot of money. In the end, you will get procedures that will be exactly what you want, but the overall process of getting there will be far from efficient.
Total cost: $5,000 - $25,000
Time frame: 6 – 12 months
Procedures tailored to your organization: Yes
Most efficient process: No
Option 4: Do Nothing
This is not really an option, unless you want to be out of business at a certain point in time. FSMA is a mandatory piece of legislation for all food producers in the USA and all those supplying to the USA. Most likely your customers are already banging on your door asking for your FSMA compliance status. And the next time you will get an FDA inspection this will most certainly be a topic of discussion as well.
Total cost: Stiff fines, blacklisting or closure during an FDA audit and/or lost sales opportunities
Time frame: Forever
Procedures tailored to your organization: No
Most efficient process: No
Option 5: Follow Another Online Course
You might subscribe for another online course on FSMA. Most of these courses provide you with the standard FDA training material. So rather than sitting in a classroom for 2.5 days, you can now watch all of it (or most of it) online. Very likely you will get no templates for procedures and registration forms for you to use and no implementation support at all. So, in the end, you it will still take you months to figure out all the details towards implementation yourself.
Total cost: $300-$1500
Time frame: 2-3 months
Procedures tailored to your organization: No
Most efficient process: No
One-Year Celebration Offer
Last year we launched the online FSMA Masterclass and it has been a great success. We also published a book on FSMA based on our research (see https://amzn.to/2Y4xT6a).
To mark the 1-year celebration of the online FSMA Masterclass, we’ve decided to offer you a special reduced rate.
For one week only we are offering more than 15% off the price for the course.
Instead of $597, which is already very cheap considering all the materials and value we give, we have reduced the price for one week only to $497. To claim this offer you need to use this code: “FSMA1YEAR”, click here.