On December 14, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a final rule entitled Amendments to Accreditation of Third-Party Certification Bodies to Conduct Food Safety Audits and to Issue Certifications to Provide for the User Fee Program (the “Final Rule”).  The Final Rule is effective January 13, 2017, and provides for a user fee program to assess fees for the work FDA performs to establish and administer the third-party certification program under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).  The same day, FDA also issued a notice announcing the fiscal year 2017 fee schedule for work FDA performs related to implementing the FSMA third-party certification program.  More information may be found in this Lieberman PLLC Regulatory Alert.  Please contact Erik Lieberman at erl1@liebermanpllc.com or 202.830.0300 if you have questions.