The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has proposed a procedural change that would allow inspectors to keep meat and poultry products from commerce “until FSIS test results for harmful substances are received.” FSIS currently recommends that processors and official import establishments hold sampled products pending test results, but has evidently concluded that his voluntary measure has allowed adulterated shipments to enter the market. “Therefore, FSIS is announcing its tentative determination not to apply the mark of inspection until negative results are available and received for any testing for adulterants,” stated the agency, which will accept comments on the proposal for 90 days after publication in the Federal Register. FSIS has argued that a mandatory “test and hold” requirement will “substantially reduce serious recalls for meat and poultry.” Along with the agency’s new and revised performance standards to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter incidence in young chickens and…
Category Archives Issue 389
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) have announced that they are seeking comments and scientific data to update a risk assessment on the relationship between foodborne Listeria in selected ready-to-eat (RTE) foods and human health. According to the agencies, the effort is designed to evaluate reduction or prevention strategies of Listeria exposure to RTE foods, such as “the impact of changing refrigerated time and temperature storage prior to consumption.” The agencies specifically request comments or data on areas including (i) Listeria “contamination in different RTE foods sampled at retail or in the processing plant,” (ii) Listeria “survival and growth dynamics in RTE foods,” (iii) “the relationship between the dose of Listeria monocytogenes ingested with food and the frequency of Listeria,” (iv) “current food consumption practices in the United States” relating to RTE foods, and (v) storage times and temperatures that may affect Listeria growth during…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched a new “consumer-friendly” web portal detailing the latest recalls, market withdrawals and safety alerts for food and other products regulated by FDA. According to an April 4, 2011, press release, the new searchable database organizes all recall information since 2009 “by date, product brand name, product description, reason for the recall, and the recalling firm.” It also provides a link to news releases about each recall, as well as a photograph of the products in question. Designed with input from stakeholder groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Food Marketing Institute, Grocery Manufacturers Association, and Pew Health Group, the web portal answers to Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) requirements that FDA implement “a consumer-friendly recall search engine within 90 days after the law went into effect.” Under FSMA, the agency must also indicate whether it offered the opportunity…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued its proposed menu-labeling rule for chain restaurants and calorie-labeling rule for food in vending machines. According to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, “These proposals will ensure that consumers have more information when they make their own food choices. Giving consumers clear nutritional information makes it easier for them to choose healthier options that can help fight obesity and make us all healthier.” Comments on the proposals, which were mandated under the Affordable Care Act, must be submitted by June 6, 2011, for the menu-labeling rule and by July 5 for the vending machine rule. Excluded from the menu-labeling rule are “[m]ovie theaters, airplanes, bowling alleys, and other establishments whose primary purpose is not to sell food,” and FDA is requesting comments “on whether additional types of food establishments should or should not be covered by the new rule.”…
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