FDA Announces Public Meeting to Discuss Proposed Food Safety Rules
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a public meeting to
discuss “the proposed rules to establish standards for the growing, harvesting,
packing, and holding of produce for human consumption (the produce safety
proposed rule) and for current good manufacturing practice and hazard
analysis and risk-based preventative controls for human food (the preventative
controls proposed rule).” Under the Food Safety Modernization Act, the
new produce safety rules would impose “science- and risk-based standards
for the safe production and harvesting of fruits and vegetables,” while the
preventative controls rule would require both foreign and domestic food manufacturers “to develop a formal plan for preventing their food products from causing foodborne illness.”
Slated for February 28, 2013, in Washington, D.C., the public meeting aims to solicit comments on the proposed measures and inform the ublic about the rulemaking process. FDA has asked interested parties to submit oral presentation requests by February 8 and to register in dvance by February 20. The agency will continue to accept written and electronic comments until May 16, 2013. Additional details about the wo proposed standards appear in Issue 466 of this Update. See Federal Register, January 31, 2013.
