The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released a blueprint of plans to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act and a hub for the New Era of Smarter Food Safety. The blueprint focuses on four elements: (i) tech-enabled traceability; (ii) smarter tools and approaches for prevention and outbreak response; (iii) new business models and retail modernization; and (iv) food safety culture. "This document represents the thinking of FDA food safety experts, consumers, the food industry, technology firms, federal and state regulatory partners, our regulatory counterparts in other nations, and academia," the blueprint states. "Together, we envision a framework that will enable food to be traced to its source in seconds and will utilize new data analytical techniques to strengthen prevention of foodborne illnesses, alerting consumers in real time before contaminated or misbranded foods are consumed. We envision a framework in which education, communication, and democratization of data will enable…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued a response to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine's petition urging the agency to require meat and poultry processing plants to publish information about COVID-19 testing and infection rates at their facilities and to include on their product labels the statement "Warning: Workers in U.S. meat and poultry processing facilities have been sickened or killed by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and this product has not been certified virus-free.” USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service states that it does not have the authority to require facilities to report on the health information of their workers. The agency's response further notes that the proposed warning statement "is misleading because it inaccurately implies that meat and poultry products that have not been 'certified as virus-free' may transmit COVID-19 or are somehow unsafe. As discussed above, public health and food safety experts have found no evidence to…
A California court has reportedly ruled that Californians can buy foie gras from out-of-state sellers and have it delivered within the state to avoid the state's ban on sales or gifts of foie gras. The ruling applies only to individual purchasers, as restaurants and retailers are still prohibited from selling foie gras, according to the Associated Press. “There is no principled way to distinguish between foie gras purchased out of state and transported into California by the purchaser and that which is delivered by a third party,” the court reportedly held.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has sided with an objector to a class settlement in a lawsuit alleging that Barilla USA pasta boxes contained too much slack fill. Berni v. Barilla S.p.A., No. 19-1921 (2nd Cir., entered July 8, 2020). The lawsuit asserts that Barilla reduced the amount of pasta in its box packaging but retained the same size of box, allegedly misleading consumers. The parties reached a settlement that included payments to class counsel and the named representative along with an agreement to update the packaging to include a “fill line” to indicate how much pasta the box contains. A class member objected to the settlement, arguing that the only relief the class received was injunctive relief, and a class of past purchasers could not be certified for injunctive relief. The district court rejected the objector’s assertion, but the Second Circuit disagreed with the lower…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has entered a new phase of enforcement for the Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP) regulation, the legally required due diligence program to review and approve foreign suppliers of imported food. In May 2020, FDA placed two companies on Import Alert 99-41, which is essentially an import ban where an importer cannot import the food until they implement an appropriate FSVP to FDA’s satisfaction. This is not the first time FDA placed a company on Import Alert 99-41. However, the previous import alert listing concerned a company that imported food associated with a recall and foodborne illnesses. In this instance, there is no indication that the food caused any food illnesses or was otherwise non-compliant; rather, it appears that the only issue was the importers failed to comply with the FSVP requirement. This inherently changes the tenor of an FSVP inspection because they now…
By Shook Associate Matt Williams California often serves as an incubator for litigation that thereafter sweeps across the country. This phenomenon may hold true for newly minted COVID-19-based price-gouging lawsuits. Indeed, California has quickly become the epicenter of price-gouging enforcement and class action litigation. Food producers, distributors, retailers and online marketplaces such as Amazon have become the targets of price-gouging actions. Importantly, there is currently no federal price-gouging law, meaning that companies must navigate 50 different state laws. California’s price-gouging statute provides that “consumer food items or goods” cannot be sold for 10% more than the price advertised immediately before a declared state of emergency. The statute provides an exception for price increases if the seller can prove it was “directly attributable” to costs imposed by up-chain suppliers or increases in labor and material costs during the emergency. Violations are prosecuted by the California Attorney General and local district attorneys,…
The European Commission has announced the adoption of strategies to support biodiversity and “transition to a sustainable EU food system that safeguards food security and ensures access to healthy diets sourced from a healthy planet.” “The coronavirus crisis has underlined the importance of a robust and resilient food system that functions in all circumstances, and is capable of ensuring access to a sufficient supply of affordable food for citizens,” a question-and-answer resource on the program stated. “It has also made us acutely aware of the interrelations between our health, ecosystems, supply chains, consumption patterns and planetary boundaries.” The program’s goals include reduction of chemical pesticides, preservation of soil nutrients, reduction in sales of antimicrobials for farmed animals and aquaculture, and an increase in organic farming by 2030. The program will also include the proposal of mandatory front-of-packaging nutrition labeling and efforts to reduce food waste.
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) has introduced The Real Economic Support That Acknowledges Unique Restaurant Assistance Needed to Survive Act of 2020 (RESTAURANTS Act). The proposed bill would create a $120 billion “restaurant stabilization grant program designed to help independent restaurants deal with the long-term structural challenges facing the industry due to COVID-19 and ensure they can reemploy 11 million workers,” according to Blumenauer’s May 20, 2020, press release. The program, which would be administered by the Department of the Treasury, would provide grants sufficient "to cover the difference between revenues from 2019 and projected revenues through 2020, with a maximum grant of $10 million.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has released a final rule updating regulations on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The rule adjusts the regulatory process for specific GMOs created to combat plant pests that pose no increased plant pest risk than conventionally bred plants.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued a rule implementing the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), which was allocated $9.5 billion in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Stability Act. CFAP provides financial support for agricultural producers affected by COVID-19 to help offset sales losses. The Farm Service Agency and Agricultural Marketing Service will implement the program, which is generally available to producers that “suffered a 5-percent-or-greater price loss over a specified time resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak” or “face additional significant marketing costs for inventories.”
