The Food and Drug Administration has announced that FSMA inspections can resume when the state is ready. The New Jersey Department of Agriculture (NJDA) will be starting inspections of fruit and vegetable operations in the next couple of weeks. NJDA will contact individual growers to schedule the inspection. These will be educational inspections covering operations with sales of $250,000 and above. If the farm thinks they are qualified exempt they will need to show some type of financial records for the last three years proving they meet the qualified exemption standard.
To be eligible for a qualified exemption, the farm must meet two requirements:
- The farm must have food sales averaging less than $500,000 per year adjusted for inflation during the previous three years.
- The farm’s direct sales to qualified end-users must exceed sales to all other buyers combined during the previous three years. A qualified end-user is either (a) the consumer of the food or (b) a restaurant or retail food establishment that is located in the same state or not more than 275 miles away.
If the operation is qualified exempt the requirement other than the financial records is to label either individual containers or have a roadside stand/farmers market sign prominently and conspicuously displayed that has the name and complete business address of the farm where the produce was grown.
For additional information contact Chris Kleinguenther, at Christian.Kleinguenther@ag.nj.gov
