The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has delayed the effective date of a final rule amending organic livestock and poultry requirements and requests additional public comment. The effective date of the rule has been postponed from May 19, 2017, to November 14, 2017. Interested parties may submit written comments by June 9, 2017. Issue 634
Category Archives Issue 634
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued a statement rejecting an Italian study claiming a link between the use of the sweetener sucralose and cancer in mice. The EFSA Journal’s review of a 10-year study conducted by the Ramazzini Institute criticized the study’s design and methodology, concluding that available data does not support the institute’s claim that sucralose may cause lymphoma or leukemia in mice. Among other criticisms, the panel said the design introduced too many variable factors that could make the data difficult to interpret, and there was no demonstrated dose-response relationship between exposure to sucralose and incidence of cancer. EFSA also pointed to the study’s failure to establish a cause-effect relationship in epidemiological studies and said there was no reliable evidence of in vivo or in vitro genotoxicity. Issue 634
The U.S. Senate has confirmed Scott Gottlieb to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a 57-42 vote. Gottlieb previously served as a deputy FDA commissioner and an official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during the George W. Bush administration. Among Gottlieb's critics are senators who expressed concern over his connections with the pharmaceutical and medical device industry, but Gottlieb has promised to divest himself from several companies and recuse himself from decisions involving those companies for one year. See New York Times and Washington Post, May 9, 2017. Issue 634
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