On April 22, 2020, the FDA announced that it would be providing temporary flexibility under the Accredited Third-Party Certification Program for foreign food entities and their products. The guidance was published in recognition of the current challenges with conducting onsite monitoring activities during the COVID-19 crisis and relaxes the requirement for recognized accreditation bodies (ABs) to conduct on-site monitoring of the performance of certification bodies (CBs) that have already been accredited, and the requirement that certificates be issued for a term only up to 12 months for already-issued certifications.
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