The U.S. Senate recently confirmed Elisabeth Hagen as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) under secretary for food safety. President Barack Obama (D) used a “recess appointment” in August 2010 to install Hagen as USDA’s top food-safety official after the Senate had not yet confirmed her appointment since her nomination nearly a year earlier. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack was quoted as saying that Hagen’s background as USDA’s chief medical officer and senior executive within its Food Safety and Inspection Service will serve her well because “there is no higher priority at USDA than ensuring that Americans have access to a safe and healthy food supply.” See USDA Press Release, September 16, 2010.
Category Archives Department of Agriculture
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced that the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection (NACMPI) will hold a public meeting on September 29-30, 2010, in Washington, D.C., to review issues pertaining to data collection, analysis, response and transparency, and pre-harvest food safety controls. The committee includes individuals from consumer groups; producers and processors; marketers from the meat, poultry and egg-product industries; government officials; and members of academia. Comments on topics discussed at the meeting must be submitted to FSIS by October 18. See Federal Register, September 16, 2010.
After the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that it had begun issuing permits to sugar beet seed producers to plant genetically modified (GM) crops this fall, the Center for Food Safety and a number of other groups filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the action. When Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the agency’s “next steps” as to Roundup Ready® sugar beets, he acknowledged the August 2010 federal court ruling that returned GM sugar beets to regulated status until the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) can complete an environmental impact statement (EIS) about the effects of deregulating the crop. According to APHIS, producers who have applied for the permits will be allowed to plant GM seedlings immediately but must not allow them to flower, and the agency will make decisions about interim regulatory measures by the end of the year on the seed producer’s request to partially deregulate…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program (NOP) has prepared a handbook that provides guidance and instructions for those who own, manage or certify organic businesses. In addition to federal regulations and recordkeeping requirements, the first-edition handbook covers topics that include: (i) “the allowance of green waste in organic production systems”; (ii) “approval of liquid fertilizers in organic production”; (iii) “certification of organic yeast”; (iv) “processed animal manures in organic crop production”; (v) “reassessed inert ingredients”; and “the calculation of dry matter intake for NOP’s access to pasture requirements.” See USDA Press Release, September 2, 2010. In a related development, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has reportedly issued new NOP enforcement procedures to ensure that “all complaints of alleged violations and civil penalties are consistently handled.” NOP will now work with accredited certifying agents to investigate complaints about alleged violations, in addition to handling enforcement. “The changes we are…
Responding to media reports that workers at the egg facilities linked to a recent nationwide Salmonella outbreak complained about food safety problems, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has written to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack asking whether these complaints were investigated and whether the agency has a process for reporting safety violations. Grassley acknowledges that USDA places only non-food safety personnel at egg farms to grade the eggs. Still, he asks whether “there is an established process for USDA employees to report food safety concerns to the FDA [Food and Drug Administration, which has the responsibility for food safety] when they fall outside of USDA’s jurisdiction?” According to press reports, two former Wright County Egg facility employees said they told USDA employees that they had observed problems such as leaking manure, rodents and dead chickens at the facilities. They also apparently claimed that USDA employees “would just turn…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program (NOP) has issued an interim final rule that extends until October 1, 2012, the allowance for methionine in organic poultry production. Effective October 1, 2010, the interim rule allows organic operations to use synthetic methionine at the following maximum limits per ton of poultry feed: (i) four pounds for laying chickens; (ii) five pounds for broiler chickens; and (iii) six pounds for turkeys and all other poultry. According to an August 24, 2010, press release, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) in April 2010 called for amending the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances to permit the continued use of synthetic methionine, an amino acid essential for poultry health and development, because its prohibition would “cause substantial economic hardship” for producers. In addition, NOSB has recommended extending the allowance beyond October 1, 2012, to October 1, 2015, while decreasing “the maximum…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released draft and final guidance to assist restaurateurs and vending machine operators in implementing the labeling provisions set out in section 4205 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. The Act requires food retail establishments with 20 or more locations to post the calorie content for standard items on menus and menu boards; provide additional nutrition information in writing; and post calorie information for self-serve items and foods on display. The draft document offers proposed guidance on the execution of these standards, while the final explains the impact of the federal measure on state and local laws. According to an August 24, 2010, FDA press release, the agency “realizes that industry may need additional information and time to comply with the new provisions, and that the agency expects to refrain from enforcement action for a time period that will be provided…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced two public meetings to consider the labeling of food derived from genetically engineered (GE) salmon. During the first meeting slated for September 19-20, 2010, the Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee will address general scientific issues surrounding GE animals, statutory and regulatory constraints, and “a new animal drug application (NADA) concerning AquAdvantage salmon produced by AquaBounty Technologies, Inc.,” which has inserted Chinook and ocean pout genes into Atlantic salmon to accelerate maturation. In addition, FDA has called a September 21, 2010, public hearing to explain “the relevant legal principles for food labeling and to solicit information and views from interested persons on the application of these principles to food derived from AquAdvantage Salmon.” FDA has specifically invited participants to consider the following: (i) “Which facts about the AquAdvantage Salmon seem most pertinent for FDA’s consideration of whether there are any ‘material’ differences between foods…
Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who chairs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) appropriations subcommittee, is seeking information from the agencies about the unfolding Salmonella outbreak linked to two Iowa egg producers. Representatives Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) have also stepped into the massive egg recall, requesting information from the same agencies and demanding documents and information from the egg company owners. Stupak’s oversight subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has scheduled a September 14, 2010, hearing into the matter and has apparently invited Wright County Egg owner Austin “Jack” DeCoster and Hillandale Farms owner Orland Bethel to testify. More than a half-billion eggs, representing less than 1 percent of the U.S. egg supply, have been recalled after an upswing in Salmonella cases came to the attention of state regulators and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention beginning in May.…
President Barack Obama (D) recently announced his intention to “recess appoint” Elisabeth Hagen as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) under secretary for food safety. According to a White House press release, Hagen is among four key administrative nominees who have waited an average of 303 days for Senate confirmation. Obama said he chose to appoint all the nominees while Congress was away on its August recess in accordance with his “authority to do what is best for the American people. At a time when our nation faces so many pressing challenges, I urge members of the Senate to stop playing politics with our highly qualified nominees and fulfill their responsibilities of advice and consent.” Hagen is currently the USDA’s chief medical officer and senior executive within USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack was quoted as saying that Hagen’s background “will enable her to successfully lead…
