CSPI Sues FDA for Inaction on Shellfish Regulation

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has filed a lawsuit
seeking to compel the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to
act on the organization’s 2012 citizen petition seeking establishment
of a performance standard for controlling Vibrio vulnificus, bacteria
responsible for several deaths related to seafood consumption. Ctr. for
Sci. in Pub. Interest v. FDA, No. 16-0995 (D.D.C., filed May 25, 2016).
CSPI argues that FDA has violated the Administrative Procedure Act
by delaying its response to CSPI’s citizen petition urging the agency “to
establish a performance standard of nondetectable for V. vulnificus in
raw molluscan shellfish” under the Food Safety Modernization Act.

“Every year, people are getting sick and some are dying from what is a
completely preventable disease,” CSPI Senior Food Safety Attorney David
Plunkett said in a May 26, 2016, press release. “For too long the FDA
has observed these illnesses and deaths from its perch on the sidelines
– leaving matters to state regulators and the industry. And it’s clear that
that approach has been a public health failure.”

Issue 606