The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to establish performance standards for the shellfish industry to reduce the threat of a “naturally occurring but deadly contaminant” found primarily in raw or undercooked oysters. According to a CSPI letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, Vibrio vulnificus (V-vulnificus) bacteria in contaminated shellfish is responsible for sickening approximately 30 people and killing 15 annually. Claiming that an annual “outbreak” occurs between April and November when Gulf Coast water temperatures create an ideal environment for the contaminant to grow, CSPI has urged FDA to “act now” to enforce regulations in 2011’s Food Safety Modernization Act requiring performance standards for significant contaminants such as V-vulnificus. “If we knew a serial killer were going to kill a dozen people like clockwork each year, the police would spring into action to stop it,” said David Plunkett ,…
Category Archives Issue 427
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Foreign Agriculture Service recently issued a Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) report concluding that a French proposal to prohibit all food packaging and materials containing bisphenol A (BPA) would “very likely… impact and jeopardize U.S. processed and other food exports to France.” Introduced after a French National Agency for Food Safety and Occupational and Environmental Health report questioned BPA’s safety, the legislation apparently reflects “strong political pressure from environmental and consumers’ groups,” as well as public distrust of the regulatory system following “the mad cow scandal, the Mediator diabetes drug scandal and even the PIP breast implant scandal.” As a result, the French food industry has evidently expressed concern that a BPA ban is unavoidable “in a short to medium term” even if the current bill is challenged at the EU level. The GAIN report warns U.S. companies that the proposed measure would require…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published its semiannual regulatory agenda outlining measures currently under development for 2012. Among the agenda items are proposed revisions to the rules that govern “certain genetically engineered organisms [GMOs] in order to bring the regulations into alignment with provisions of the Plant Protection Act.” Billed as the first comprehensive review of these regulations since 1987, the undertaking would apparently take into account the agency’s accumulated rulemaking experience as well as “advances in genetic science and technology.” USDA thus anticipates that any rule changes will affect “persons involved with the importation, interstate movement, or release into the environment of genetically engineered plants and certain other [GMOs].” In addition, the agenda includes modifications to the rules governing the importation of livestock and poultry at risk of transmitting bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or highly pathogenic avian influenza. In particular, USDA has suggested (i) amending BSE regulations…
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