The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a constituent update responding to the Senate's report on elevated levels of heavy metals in baby foods. "While the report released on February 4, 2021 by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy raises important questions on what more can be done to reduce toxic elements in baby foods, the FDA has been actively working on this issue using a risk-based approach to prioritize and target the agency’s efforts," the update states. "Firms and individuals who manufacture or sell food have a legal responsibility under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to ensure the safety of their products. The FDA reviews information and takes action on a case-by-case basis. If the FDA finds that a product violates the law, the agency takes steps to stop the product from being imported, takes…
Category Archives U.S. Government and Regulatory Agencies
A coalition of advocacy groups has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asserting that Smithfield Foods misleadingly markets its pork products as "produced in an environmentally responsible and sustainable way" despite the company's production methods allegedly falling "far below the level of environmental sustainability that a reasonable consumer would expect based on the company’s representations." The complaint further argues that "Smithfield touts its use of anaerobic digesters to produce methane from its pollution-laden waste as a sustainable innovation and solution to Smithfield’s climate damaging production practices—a falsehood that capitalizes on an issue of growing importance to consumers." The petitioners include Food & Water Watch, Socially Responsible Agriculture Project and organizations from Iowa, Missouri and Pennsylvania.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released its final rule governing the cultivation of hemp, which will take effect March 22, 2021. The draft rule would have required hemp to be shown to contain less than 0.3% tetrahydrocannibanol (THC) on testing conducted within 15 days of harvest, a proposal that drew criticism from several parties. The final rule reduces some of the requirements, such as allowing 30 days to test and raising the negligence threshold to 1% rather than 0.5%. The rule also allows some flexibility for states to develop testing methods that take into account variables such as regional environmental factors.
President Biden has withdrawn an executive order that would have allowed 25% faster processing speeds on poultry lines in meatpacking plants. The policy change would have allowed plants to process 175 slaughtered birds per minute, up from 140, in accordance with a proposal by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service. Criticism of the proposal came from advocacy groups that argued the faster speeds with endanger workers, especially after a study purportedly showed that plants with waivers allowing the faster speeds had higher COVID-19 transmission rates.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the approval of GalSafe pigs, which have a "first-of-its-kind intentional genomic alteration (IGA)," for use in food. "This is the first IGA in an animal that the FDA has approved for both human food consumption and as a source for potential therapeutic uses," the announcement states. "The IGA in GalSafe pigs is intended to eliminate alpha-gal sugar on the surface of the pigs’ cells. People with Alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) may have mild to severe allergic reactions to alpha-gal sugar found in red meat (e.g., beef, pork, and lamb)." FDA reportedly found that "food from Galsafe pigs is safe for the general population to eat" and that the potential impact of the pigs is no greater than from conventional pigs.
In an effort to remove regulations no longer "necessary to ensure that these products meet consumer expectations," the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed to revoke the standards of identity and quality for frozen cherry pie and French dressing. "The proposal is part of the FDA’s Nutrition Innovation Strategy," constituent updates on the proposed revocations state. "One of the goals of the NIS is to modernize food standards to maintain the basic nature and nutritional integrity of products while allowing industry flexibility for innovation to produce more healthful foods. The FDA believes it is important to take a fresh look at existing standards of identity in light of marketing trends and the latest nutritional science." The agency's Fall 2020 agenda also indicated an intention to amend the standard of identity for yogurt and revoke the standards of identity for lowfat and nonfat yogurt, but that final rule has…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has partially granted a petition filed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) about the use of "No Nitrate or Nitrite Added" and "Uncured" on labels for "products that have been processed using any source of nitrates or nitrites." FSIS indicated in its response letter to CSPI that it will issue a rulemaking proposing the regulation of such phrases but noted, "However, rather than requiring disclosure statements about the use of nitrate or nitrites on labels of meat and poultry products, as requested in the petition, FSIS intends to propose to amend and clarify its meat and poultry labeling regulations to establish new definitions for 'Cured' and 'Uncured.' The basis for these proposed changes would be discussed in detail in the proposed rule, which is listed in the Fall 2020 Semiannual Regulatory Agenda, with a tentative…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued final guidance on the use of potassium chloride on food labels. The guidance advises "food manufacturers of its intent to exercise enforcement discretion for the name 'potassium salt' in the ingredient statement on food labels as an alternative to 'potassium chloride' to better inform consumers that it is a salt substitute." "Potassium chloride, in some instances, can be used as a partial substitute for sodium chloride (referred to as 'salt') in food processing and manufacturing," the constituent update notes. "Providing this enforcement discretion may help facilitate consumers’ choices to decrease their sodium consumption, if manufacturers use potassium chloride as a substitute ingredient for some sodium chloride."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned Frito-Lay Inc. about "serious violations of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food regulation" because its investigators found potato chips to be misbranded "in that the finished product labels did not declare a major food allergen (milk)" in addition to being "prepared, packed or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have been rendered injurious to health." The warning applied to Ruffles Cheddar & Sour Cream Potato Chips packaged with labels for the wrong type of chips, the Ruffles Original variety, at one facility. At another facility, the company reportedly failed to implement "allergen preventive control procedures to significantly minimize or prevent allergen cross-contact," which require the company to "verify that all visible evidence of prior seasoning is removed" after producing Lay's Limón Flavored Potato Chips.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued draft guidance "encouraging food manufacturers to voluntarily declare sesame in the ingredient list on food labels." The guidance notes that "sesame can, in some circumstances (such as when ground and used in a spice blend), be declared in an ingredient statement as simply 'spice' or 'flavor,' so its presence may not be obvious to consumers." While FDA has not required sesame to be labeled, "we recommend that manufacturers, as a voluntary matter, clearly declare sesame in the ingredient list when it is used in foods as a 'flavor' or 'spice' in a parenthetical following the spice or flavor, such as 'spice (sesame),' 'spices (including sesame),' 'flavor (sesame),' or 'flavors (including sesame).' If a term is used for a food that is or contains sesame, such as tahini, we recommend that sesame be included in a parenthesis, e.g. 'tahini (sesame)' in the…
