FDA-SENASICA-Cofepris Food Safety Partnership
<< International Cooperation on Food Safety
The FDA-SENASICA-Cofepris Food Safety Partnership (FSP) was established in September 2020, through a new Statement of Intent (SOI) between the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Mexico’s National Service of Agro-Alimentary Health, Safety and Quality (SENASICA) and the Federal Commission for Protection against Sanitary Risk (Cofepris).
Through its Latin America Office, the FDA and Mexico’s food safety regulators have been working collaboratively on fresh produce safety since 2014.
The goal of the FSP is to protect public health through the prevention of foodborne diseases in human foods, by using modern approaches and preventive practices based on technical and scientific evidence, health surveillance, and verification measures.
Roughly one third of all FDA-regulated human food imported into the U.S. is from Mexico, including 60% of our fresh produce imports.
The FSP aligns with the aims of the FDA’s New Era of Smarter Food Safety Blueprint through its core elements of tech-enabled traceability, smarter tools and approaches for prevention and outbreak response, new business models and business modernization, and food safety culture. In addition, the FSP facilitates important work on increased data-sharing to improve outbreak response communications between Mexico and the U.S.
What’s New about this Food Safety Partnership
The FSP provides new opportunities for collaboration that build upon our pre-existing partnership with SENASICA and Cofepris.
- The scope of the FSP has been expanded beyond fresh produce to include the safety of all human food.
- The renewed FSP focuses on increased dialogue around emerging technologies, such as Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS).
- FDA, SENASICA, and Cofepris have emphasized their shared interest in collaborating with academia, industry trade associations, and consumer groups in the U.S. and Mexico for a comprehensive approach to prevention of foodborne diseases in human foods.
Organization
To accomplish the aims of the FSP, there are four content-specific workgroups that focus on shared priority topics as agreed upon between FDA, SENASICA, and Cofepris.
- The Strategic Priorities Work Group is establishing and implementing information exchange and communication mechanisms between agencies on strategic issues, that can potentially pose a risk to the health of consumers in both countries, identified through outbreaks and other for-cause events, and during routine import and export processes.
- The Laboratory Collaboration Work Group is enhancing collaboration on laboratory activities, including sharing Mexico’s whole genome sequencing (WGS) data in the GenomeTrakr.
- The Outbreak Response Work Group is enhancing the effective and timely response for the identification of outbreaks associated with human foods traded between both countries.
- The Food Safety Training Work Group is facilitating training and dissemination mechanisms on food safety issues of interest and agreed upon by the FSP to help improve compliance with applicable requirements and regulations, especially under the Produce Safety Rule, Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule, and Foreign Supplier Verification Programs (FSVP) Rule.
Progress and Accomplishments
Working groups established at the start of the FSP reported tangible progress toward better protections for public health – particularly in the areas of exchanging analytical methods to improve detection and reduce exposure to food contaminated with Cyclospora cayetanensis. In addition, important work on increased data-sharing to improve outbreak response communications and targeted training and outreach continues between the three agencies.
- FDA, SENASICA, Cofepris, and key industry organizations collaboratively held a virtual webinar on Cyclospora cayetanenesis for fresh herb growers and packers from the state of Puebla, Mexico.
- This workgroup initiated technical dialogue around SENASICA’s Systems for the Reduction of Contamination Risks (SRRC), the Mexican government’s voluntary audit standards for produce safety, and FDA’s PSR to better understand each other’s standards, as well as a technical review of SRRC by FDA.
- FDA, SENASICA, and papaya industry representatives from the U.S. and Mexico are sharing activities on papaya best practices trainings and additional resources through risk-based analysis.
Newly available resources:
- FDA, SENASICA, and Cofepris conducted laboratory assessments to evaluate current infrastructure, staff, sequencing experience and capabilities, and recent analytical activities.
- The workgroup is also utilizing a collaborative and secure platform, FoodSHIELD, to share specific laboratory protocols for the analysis of Cyclospora cayetanensis in produce.
- Information exchange has begun for Cyclospora cayetanensis analytical methods.
- SENASICA signed up for the GenomeTrakr (GT) proficiency testing (PT) exercise.
- In preparation for sequencing, Cofepris created a Salmonella DNA bank for WGS.
- FDA, SENASICA, and Cofepris have each led information exchange sessions to learn more about each agency’s outbreak response process.
- The three agencies identified areas to streamline the Binational Outbreak Notification Protocol, a notification system jointly developed by the United States and Mexico in 2014 to expediate communications during food safety outbreaks. The revisions include:
- More rapidly exchanging information on epidemiological surveillance, sample analysis and traceback activities during outbreak response activities.
- Sharing outbreak information during the early stages of an outbreak investigation which would allow resources to be mobilized more quickly, if warranted.
- FDA produce safety experts offered a virtual PSR and FSVP presentation to produce industry stakeholders in Mexico.
- Cofepris and SENASICA promoted these PSR/FSVP outreach presentations to relevant Mexican produce stakeholders.
- 750 participants attended and many more continue to watch the recordings.
- Since the start of the FSP, through collaborative efforts with the Mexican papaya industry, more than 300 produce growers in Mexico have been trained on the Produce Safety Alliance’s Grower Training curricula.
- Through collaborations with ProExport Papaya & TIPA, approximately 90% of the papaya industry has been trained on papaya best practices.
- Both FDA and SENASICA are supporting remote grower trainings in priority locations across Mexico.
News & Announcements
- 8/23/2021 - The Food Safety Partnership Between the U.S. and Mexico Reports Progress at First Annual Meeting
- 3/17/2021 FDA Voices Blog - FDA’s Partnership with Mexico’s Regulators Strengthens Food Safety Protections
- 10/2/2020 Press Release - FDA, Mexican Counterparts Enhance Food Safety Partnership
- 10/5/2020 CFSAN Constituent Update - FDA and Mexico Sign Statement of Intent Forging Food Safety Partnership
- 6/25/2020 FDA In Brief - FDA Redoubles Call to Action for Papaya Industry to Keep American Consumers Safe from Foodborne Illness
Resources