Grapevine

New food safety rules may cost small and mid-sized businesses big money

A newly published study by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst estimates that it can cost small and mid-sized food producers tens of thousands of dollars to meet new food safety standards that prescribe proactive measures to ensure the safety of the U.S. food supply. The research is the first to assign an estimated dollar amount to compliance.

The Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule (PCHF), the first phases of which took effect starting in 2016, lays out the steps that large producers must take to comply with requirements related to everything from sanitation and food-allergen controls to recordkeeping and hazard identification. Smaller producers are exempt from some requirements but not others.

This ambiguity has left producers that are too small to have a dedicated compliance unit with little information about costs associated with PCHF, and in some cases, even about the requirements themselves.

Working with 81 small and mid-sized food producers in the Northeast, the research team modified existing food safety training materials to include supplemental information about planning, implementation and management costs associated with adopting the new standards.

The study found that initial costs averaged $21,932 per business, followed by ongoing costs of nearly $8,000 per year, and that even modest efforts to fill the content gap can reduce cost barriers for businesses seeking to follow the new rules. The paper is published in PLOS ONE.