New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has reportedly signed a law banning single-use plastic and paper bags and imposing limits on other food containers and straws. Effective May 2022, the law will ban the use of polystyrene food and drink containers, and single-use plastic straws may only be provided upon request beginning in November 2021. Some products will be exempt until 2024, including meat and fish trays, food prepackaged in polystyrene by the manufacturer, polystyrene soda spoons used for thick drinks and portion cups for foods requiring a lid.
Category Archives Legislation, Regulations and Standards
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued final guidance on the declaration of allulose in food. "The guidance describes FDA's views on the declaration of allulose on Nutrition Facts and Supplement Facts labels and the caloric content of allulose," according to the announcement. "The guidance also announces our intent to exercise enforcement discretion for the exclusion of allulose from the amount of Total Sugars and Added Sugars declared on the Nutrition Facts and Supplement Facts label and use of a general factor of 0.4 calories per gram (kcal/g) for allulose when calculating declarations on Nutrition and Supplement Facts labels." The agency also announced a request for comments on "the nutrition labeling of sugars that are metabolized differently than traditional sugars," such as allulose, D-tagatose and isomaltulose. According to the announcement, "Some sugars (e.g., allulose, D-tagatose, isomaltulose) do not have all of the same effects in the body as…
The National American Meat Institute and the Alliance for Meat, Poultry and Seafood Innovation have urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to seek more information on cultured or cell-based meat and poultry products. The organizations recommend that USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service issue an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to obtain information about the finished products. "For cell-based/cultured products, there are several approaches to producing these products and, depending on the approach, the characteristics of some products may vary from those of conventional products, as noted by the agencies," the letter notes. " The companies developing these products are committed to supporting and complying with principles that ensure labeling is truthful and not misleading, does not disparage cell-based/cultured or conventional products, enables consumers to distinguish between such products, and is consistent with the safety and nutritional qualities of the product."
The European Parliament has reportedly voted against a ban on the use of meat terms for plant-based alternatives to meat, allowing words such as "burger," "steak" and "sausage" to be used on the packaging for plant-based foods, while passing a measure to ban the use of dairy terms on alternatives to dairy foods, such as "yogurt-style" or "cream imitation." A ban was already in place for the use of "milk" and "butter" for plant-based foods, and the passage of the measure expands the limitations.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a voluntary pilot program that will assess third-party food safety audit standards for the Preventive Controls for Human Food and Produce Safety requirements set forth under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The agency also released a guidance document with further information about the program. "We are launching this pilot program because we expect that FDA alignment determinations would create efficiencies for industry if they have confidence that the third-party standards used to audit their suppliers adequately consider the FDA’s food safety requirements," the announcement states. "Similarly, we expect that it would be helpful for FDA investigators to know that the standards used to audit a supplier were aligned with FDA regulations. This could help investigators more efficiently determine whether importers and receiving facilities are in compliance with the FSMA supply-chain verification requirements for audits."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the results of a study examining 52 dark chocolate products, determining that four of the products had potentially hazardous levels of milk allergens. "The agency found the 12 samples from the four products to have milk allergen levels ranging from 600 ppm to 3,100 ppm," the announcement states. "The agency determined that, at these levels, the four products held the potential to cause severe reactions in consumers with milk allergy. The FDA took action as warranted to address each of these positives."
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), has responded to a petition submitted by the American Veal Association aiming to establish "a regulatory definition for veal and other immature cattle that reflects established industry practices." The petition included a proposed definition and suggested subcategories for "milk-fed veal," "formula-fed veal" and "grain/grass-fed veal." "After careful consideration of the issues raised in the petition, FSIS has decided to deny your petition without prejudice," the response states. "FSIS has determined that the petition does not include the necessary consumer research or other supporting data to demonstrate that a regulatory definition for 'veal,' based primarily on the dressed carcass weight and compliance with [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] regulations, is needed to meet consumer expectations for products labeled as 'veal.' FSIS has also determined that, for labeling purposes, it is not necessary to define optional…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will host three virtual public meetings to discuss the proposal of additional traceability records required for high-risk foods. All three meetings "will cover the same agenda items and are intended to facilitate and support the public's evaluation and commenting process." The meetings will be held November 6, November 18 and December 2, 2020.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has announced that it will amend regulations governing the National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP). The amendments "establish a U.S. Newcastle Disease Clean program within the NPIP, create an NPIP subpart specific to game birds, revise testing requirements, and clarify existing provisions of the regulations," according to the announcement. The agency also amends "the regulations concerning the payment of indemnity and compensation for low pathogenic avian influenza to reflect current policy and operational practices, and allowing NPIP voting delegates to represent multiple States during the Biennial Conferences." The changes take effect November 4, 2020.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has requested information "pertaining to the labeling of foods comprised of or containing cultured seafood cells," which the agency notes are "being developed and may soon enter the marketplace." "Animal cell culture technology involves the controlled growth of animal cells, their subsequent differentiation into various cell types, and their harvesting and processing into food," the notice states. "Once produced, the harvested cells could potentially be processed into or combined with other foods and marketed in the same, or similar, manner as conventionally produced meat, poultry, and seafood." Comments will be accepted until March 8, 2021.
