U.S. Reps. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Lucille Roybal Allard (D-Calif.) have circulated a request to their colleagues that they join a letter to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Margaret Hamburg asking that the agency take action on two citizen petitions, pending before the agency for some eight years, seeking a rule that sugary beverages “carry a rotating series of health messages on their labels in order to educate consumers on the health risks of sugar overconsumption.” The first petition was filed in 2005 by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. See “Ask the FDA to Review Petitions on Sugary Beverages,” October 22, 2013.
Category Archives U.S. Government and Regulatory Agencies
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has extended until December 16, 2013, the period for submission of comments, scientific data and other information related to its risk assessment of human salmonellosis associated with the consumption of tree nuts. Originally published in the July 18 Federal Register, the assessment seeks to quantify the public health risk associated with eating tree nuts potentially contaminated with Salmonella and evaluate the impact of interventions to prevent contamination with the bacterium or to reduce contamination levels. Additional information about the risk assessment appears in Issue 491 of this Update. See Federal Register, October 4, 2013.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has published a final rule addressing the recommendations submitted by the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) as part of the 2013 sunset review of substances on USDA’s National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (the National List), which governs the use of synthetic and non-synthetic substances in organic crop and livestock production and handling. In addition to renewing for five years multiple exemptions (uses) and one prohibition on the National List in accordance with NOSB’s recommendations, AMS has removed an exemption for the synthetic form of tartaric acid made from malic acid, thus prohibiting its use in organic handling. Effective November 3, 2013, the final rule also includes the agency’s response to comments on the renewals of two synthetic substances—EPA List 3 Inerts and cellulose—and one non-synthetic substance—carrageenan—that are currently permitted in organic crop production, handling and processing. In particular,…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has issued a final rule, effective Oct. 17, 2013, amending regulations governing the standards for the condition of food containers. According to the agency, revising existing tables, removing operating characteristic curves and updating language in the standards will render them applicable to most types of food containers and align them with current industry practices. AMS also noted that since the standards were last amended in May 1983, innovations in packaging technologies have provided an increasingly wide variety of acceptable new food containers, including aseptic packaging, metal cans with easy-open lids, and plastic rings that hold several containers together. See Federal Register, September 17, 2013.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has requested comments on proposed self-regulatory guidelines submitted by the kidSAFE Seal Program under the safe harbor provisions of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (the COPPA Rule). Owned and operated by Samet Privacy, LLC, the kidSAFE Seal Program identifies itself as “a fast-growing safety certification service and seal-of-approval program designed exclusively for children-friendly websites, mobile applications, tablet devices, and other similar interactive services and technologies.” The program is seeking safe harbor status pursuant to Section 312.11 of the Revised COPPA Rule. In particular, FTC has asked respondents to consider, among other things, whether (i) the proposed guidelines provide “the same or greater protections for children” as those contained in Sections 312.2-312.10 of the Rule; (ii) “the mechanisms used to assess operators’ compliance with the proposed guidelines” are effective; (iii) “the incentives for operators’ compliance with the proposed guidelines” are effective; and (iv) the proposed…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Food and Drug Administration have announced an August 5, 2013, public meeting in Washington, D.C., to provide information and receive public comments on agenda items and draft U.S. positions for discussion during the 21st Session of the Codex Committee on Residues of Veterinary Drugs of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on August 26-30, 2013. Agenda items include a report on World Organization for Animal Health activities; proposed draft maximum residue limits (MRLs) for veterinary drugs; proposed draft guidelines on performance characteristics for multi-residue methods; and a discussion paper on MRLs and other limits in honey. See Federal Register, June 20, 2103. Issue 488
A federal court in the District of Columbia has denied the American Meat Institute’s motion for a preliminary injunction in a challenge to the amended country-of-origin labeling (COOL) rules adopted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Marketing Service in response to a World Trade Organization (WTO) determination that the original rules violated the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade by according less favorable treatment to foreign livestock. Am. Meat Inst. v. USDA, No. 13-1033 (D.D.C., decided September 11, 2013). The court was not persuaded that the plaintiffs, meat processing interests, were likely to succeed on the merits of their First Amendment and statutory challenges to the amended rule. Additional information about the challenge appears in Issue 495 of this Update. Assessing the First Amendment claims under a lenient reasonableness standard because the rule involved commercial speech that mandated purely factual and uncontroversial disclosures, the court determined that…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has extended until November 12, 2013, the period for submission of comments, scientific data and other information related to its draft guidance titled “Arsenic in Apple Juice: Action Level.” Originally published in the July 15 Federal Register, the guidance proposes an action level of 10 parts per billion for inorganic arsenic in apple juice, which FDA considers “protective of human health and achievable with the use of good manufacturing practices.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set the same level for arsenic in drinking water. FDA extended the deadline in response to a request “to allow interested persons additional time to submit comments.” More details about the proposed rule appear in Issue 490 of this Update. See Federal Register, September 13, 2013.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reported that after testing 1,300 samples of rice and rice products for the presence of arsenic, the agency has determined that although the levels varied significantly depending on the product tested, the amount of detectable arsenic is “too low” to cause any “immediate or short-term adverse health effects.” The new findings represent the latest of the agency’s ongoing efforts to manage possible arsenic-related risks associated with the consumption of rice in the United States. FDA has apparently been monitoring arsenic levels in rice for more than 20 years and has seen no evidence of change in levels of total arsenic in rice. The agency’s next step will be to use new tools that provide greater specificity about different types of arsenic present in foods to analyze the effect of long-term exposure to low levels of arsenic in rice. It plans to conduct…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Marketing Service has announced an October 22-24, 2013, public meeting of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) in Louisville, Kentucky. The meeting will address “several petitions pertaining to changes to the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances, including several substances for use in aquaculture, streptomycin for use to control fire blight in pears and apples, and glycerin,” in addition to featuring updates from the NOSB subcommittees on Compliance, Accreditation, and Certification; Crops; Handling; Livestock; Materials; Policy Development; and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). In particular, the GMO Ad-Hoc Subcommittee will discuss how to ensure and enforce the genetic purity of seed used in organic crop production. NOSB will accept written public comments on the meeting agenda and registrations for oral public comments by October 1, 2013. See Federal Register and NOSB Press Release, September 5, 2013.
