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Food Safety Modernization Act: Food Safety Plan

Learn what a food safety plan is and who is required to have a plan under the Food Modernization Act (FSMA). This article also breaks down the written food safety plan and gives resources to help facilities develop a food safety plan.

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Updated:

December 16, 2025

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Penn State Extension is helping produce growers, food processors, and feed manufacturers prepare for new regulatory standards required under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) of 2011.

What is a Food Safety Plan?

If you are a domestic or foreign facility covered under the preventive controls rule, you must have and implement a written food safety plan that identifies food safety hazards that require a preventive control and implement preventive controls to significantly minimize or prevent the hazard.

The written food safety plan must include a hazard analysis to identify any known or reasonably foreseeable biological, chemical, and physical hazards, and determine if any of those hazards require a preventive control.

If the hazard analysis identifies a hazard that requires a preventive control, you are required to develop and implement a control to significantly minimize or prevent the hazard.

The preventive controls must be written in the food safety plan and include, as appropriate, procedures, monitoring, corrective actions, verification, records, and, in some cases, validation.

The rule outlines preventive controls and associated requirements that could include:

process controls
food allergen controls
sanitation controls
supply chain program and other controls

Lastly, when the hazard analysis identifies a hazard that requires a preventive control, you must also develop a written recall plan that includes the procedures on how to perform a recall and responsibilities for specific activities related to the recall.

There are resources available to help facilities develop a food safety plan. One of them is the Food Safety Plan Builder. This is a software program that can help you develop a customized food safety plan for your facility.

For more information, please visit the Penn State Extension FSMA section.

This program was developed by Food Safety CTS, LLC, for the USDA Food Safety and Agricultural Sustainability Training program and Penn State Extension.

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