Kind LLC has submitted a citizen petition urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to require disclosure of added sugar and trans fat on food packaging and remove the required disclosures for total fat and cholesterol. In addition, the petition recommends that FDA "[r]evise its nutrient content claim regulations to only allow a food to bear a nutrient content claim highlighting the presence or absence of a nutrient if the food contains a meaningful amount of at least one health-promoting food, such as: vegetables, fruits (especially whole fruits), whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds, which are recommended in the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans."
Category Archives U.S. Government and Regulatory Agencies
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) have announced the first meeting of the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee and the opening of the public comment period on the development of the updated guidelines. The March 28-29, 2019, meeting is open to the public and is the first of five public meetings the agencies intend to hold.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has indicated that he will resign by the end of March 2019. Gottlieb reportedly said that he no longer wanted to commute between Washington, D.C., and Westport, Connecticut, where his family lives. Commentators have speculated that Gottlieb's departure may affect FDA initiatives, such as its planned review of the safety of cannabidiol as a food additive.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced an online listening session to hear public input about "a new program to regulate hemp production." The agency's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will host the webinar on March 13, 2019, with registration required by March 11 to speak during the session. "The Secretary of Agriculture and the respective USDA agencies, including AMS, are working to implement the provisions of the 2018 Farm Bill as expeditiously as possible to meet the needs of producers and other stakeholders," the announcement states. "To allow for public input and ensure transparency, it is important to hear from stakeholders regarding their priorities, concerns, and requests."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have announced "a formal agreement to jointly oversee the production of human food products derived from the cells of livestock and poultry." The agreement "describes the oversight roles and responsibilities for both agencies and how the agencies will collaborate to regulate the development and entry of these products into commerce," according to a press release. "This shared regulatory approach will ensure that cell-cultured products derived from the cell lines of livestock and poultry are produced safely and are accurately labeled."
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking to identify the poultry-production plants associated with an outbreak of Salmonella. CSPI requested that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) deliver information on the "name, address, establishment number, and date of positive sample(s)" for poultry products that "tested positive for the outbreak strain of Salmonella Infantis" in raw chicken and "Salmonella Reading" in raw turkey. "In addition to granting the current FOIA request, which may be done by delivering the data to CSPI directly or posting it on the USDA website, CSPI also requests that the USDA develop a practice for reporting this information publicly in all similar multi-source outbreaks moving forward," the request states.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb reportedly said in a February 27, 2019, hearing before the House Appropriations Committee that the agency will hold public hearings on cannabidiol (CBD) in April 2019. Gottlieb reportedly told the committee that FDA is assembling a working group of senior officials to create rules that would govern CBD in food and other uses. According to CNBC, "Gottlieb floated what a possible framework might look like. He suggested high concentrations might be regulated as a drug that has more stringent oversight while lower concentrations could be categorized as food products that come with an easier review process." Meanwhile, a New York City crackdown on CBD in food products has reportedly been postponed. Beginning in October 2019, CBS reports, violators selling CBD food may be subject to fines of $200 and risk lower public health letter grades.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has released "Strategy for the Safety of Imported Food," which outlines methods the agency is using to ensure that it meets its four goals: (i) ensuring that imported food meets U.S. food safety requirements; (ii) preventing the entry of unsafe foods; (iii) rapidly responding to unsafe imported foods; and (iv) maintaining an "effective and efficient food import program."
The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) has submitted a citizen petition urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to "[e]nforce existing 'imitation' labeling requirements against nutritionally inferior non-dairy substitutes for standardized dairy foods that are named and positioned as forms of 'milk,' 'yogurt,' 'cheese,' 'ice cream,' or 'butter,' yet fail to provide the 'imitation' disclosure statement that is required." The petition's introductory letter argues that its recommended actions "are necessary to ensure that consumers are adequately informed concerning the material differences between standardized dairy foods (e.g., milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, butter) and the wide variety of non-dairy substitutes that are available in the marketplace which are identified through the misappropriation of terms that have been defined by standards of identity to identify standardized foods that meet specified compositional, nutritional, or functional requirements." The debate over dairy and non-dairy substitute labeling extends to Canada, where a creamery has reportedly…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced public meetings to discuss proposed positions for the United States to take at various Codex Alimentarius Commissions. A meeting on general principles and procedures is scheduled for February 25, 2019, for the March Codex meeting in Bordeaux, France. The U.S. Codex Office will also host a public meeting on April 1, 2019, to discuss positions on contaminants in foods and a public meeting on May 6, 2019, to discuss methods of analysis.
