FDA announced on October 24 that it does not intend to take enforcement action against manufacturers in the first six months following the January 1, 2020, deadline to update Nutrition Facts labels on food packaging.
YOUR SOURCE ON FOOD LITIGATION AND REGULATION
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a Notice of Availability and Request for Public Comment on a new guideline addressing multi-component food kits that contain meat or poultry items (Meal Kit Guideline). The Meal Kit Guideline provides industry with information on how to label a multi-component food kit that contains meat or poultry and whether it would need to be prepared under FSIS inspection.
FDA released a consumer update stating that it supports industry’s effort to toss expiration dating terms on foods, such as “use before,” “sell by,” and “expires on,” for the more neutral date phrase “best if used by.”
Recent scientific advancements have revolutionized the way food and agricultural products are being grown, sold, and regulated. These advancements raise new regulatory issues and create unique challenges for companies in the industry.
As promised and on time, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued an agreement on March 7 describing in some detail the division of responsibility between the two agencies over the emerging and much-talked-about category of human food produced using cell culture technology derived from cell lines of USDA-amenable species of meat and poultry.
With a focus upon the emerging cell-cultured meat industry, there has been considerable recent discussion about the significance of jurisdictional differences at the federal level between the US Department of Agriculture and the US Food and Drug Administration.
The pending and still tentative resolution of jurisdictional issues between the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) surrounding cell-cultured meat and poultry products should address one of the three core regulatory issues confronting this emerging industry.
To BE or Not to BE? USDA Finalizes Rule Establishing National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), through its Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) published its final rule (NBFDS Final Rule) on December 21 establishing a nationwide labeling disclosure requirement for foods containing bioengineered (BE) ingredients, defined as foods or substances that contain genetic material that has been modified through in vitro recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (rDNA) techniques and for which the modification could not otherwise be obtained through conventional breeding or be found in nature. While a more thorough analysis is still being conducted, here we provide a summary of the major topics addressed in the NBFDS Final Rule.
As readers are undoubtedly aware, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a Food Safety Alert (Alert) on November 20 due to a multistate outbreak of E. coli-related infections linked to romaine lettuce. The CDC alert associated the product with 32 illnesses and 13 hospitalizations.
Adding Sesame to the Peanut Gallery? FDA Considers Whether Sesame Should Be Disclosed as an Allergen
On October 29, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced that FDA is considering whether sesame should be disclosed on food labels as an allergen. Because sesame is not identified as a “major food allergen” under the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 (FALCPA), the ingredient is not always required to be stated on the food label.
