The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced two additional public meetings to discuss proposed rules to establish standards for the growing, harvesting, packing, and holding of produce for human consumption (the produce safety proposed rule), and for current good manufacturing practice and hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls for human food (the preventive controls proposed rule). The meetings are scheduled for March 11-12 in Chicago and March 27-28 in Portland, Oregon.

FDA anticipates that the proposed produce safety rule would “reduce foodborne illnesses associated with the consumption of produce.” The proposed preventative controls rule would evidently apply to human food and require domestic and foreign facilities that must register under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to have written plans that identify hazards, specify the steps that will be put in place to minimize or prevent those hazards, monitor results and act to correct problems that arise. See Federal Register, February 13, 2013.

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For decades, manufacturers, distributors and retailers at every link in the food chain have come to Shook, Hardy & Bacon to partner with a legal team that understands the issues they face in today's evolving food production industry. Shook attorneys work with some of the world's largest food, beverage and agribusiness companies to establish preventative measures, conduct internal audits, develop public relations strategies, and advance tort reform initiatives.

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