The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued a proposed rule that would address a 2008 Farm Bill mandate making catfish an amenable species under the Federal Meat Inspection Act and therefore requiring all domestic and imported catfish to undergo FSIS inspection. According to a February 18, 2011, press release, FSIS has offered two definitions for “catfish,” one limited to all species in the family Ictaluridae and a broader one that covers all species in the order Siluriformes, which includes Ictaluridae, Pangasiidae and Clariidae, the three families “typically found in human food channels.” The proposed rule would also require, among other provisions, that all catfish “produced in or imported to the United States” bear an FSIS inspection mark or “a mark of inspection from the country from which it was exported.” In addition, the agency has suggested plans for (i) inspecting catfish farms, (ii)…
Tag Archives food safety
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued an update to its “High-Risk Series” report in which it attempts to “focus attention on government operations that it identifies as high risk due to their greater vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement or the need for transformation to address economy, efficiency, or effectiveness challenges.” Among other matters, the report continues to call for revamping federal oversight of food safety. Citing the nationwide 2010 Salmonella-tainted egg recall as an example, GAO contends that fragmented federal oversight has created food safety challenges. While the Food Safety Modernization Act has expanded Food and Drug Administration oversight authority, GAO recommends that Congress “also consider enacting comprehensive, uniform, and risk-based food safety legislation [and] commissioning a detailed analysis of alternative organizational structures for food safety.”
Ruling on a request by a non-governmental organization (NGO), two supreme court justices in India have reportedly asked the government to remove food and soft drink company representatives from food-safety standards and enforcement panels. According to the justices, the industry representation clearly breaches the mandate of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006. Under the law, government panel members must be independent scientific experts who may consult with the food industry and consumers before adopting standards regulating the manufacture, storage, distribution, sale, and import of food products. The NGO had reportedly sought a scientific investigation into the contents of soft drink beverages, claiming that their consumption is a major cause of adolescent obesity. An industry spokesperson apparently responded by calling obesity a rich man’s problem in a country where more than a third of the population lives below the poverty line. He cited the Indian Council for Medical Research, which…
Utah State Representative Bill Wright (R-Holden) has reportedly introduced legislation (H.B. 365) that would exempt from federal regulation all foods grown and consumed within the state’s borders. He was quoted as saying, “Within the state, it’s state’s rights. We already have regulations over those items. We function well now. We don’t think they have a right or authority to regulate those items that are not in interstate commerce, as long as they’re grown within the state, packaged in the state and remain in the state.” A Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) spokesperson apparently responded by claiming that the politician was “playing to people’s fears and misrepresenting the facts and doing it for political purposes.” According to CSPI, Utah merited a “D” grade for its ability to detect contaminated food outbreaks. Some produce and livestock farmers echoed Wright’s concerns, contending that regulations and inspections add costs to their…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has requested comments on two petitions for rulemaking submitted by animal rights groups seeking reformed regulations concerning “the disposition of non-ambulatory disabled” livestock at slaughter. FSIS also plans to clarify its requirements for “condemned non-ambulatory disabled cattle at official slaughter establishments.” The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) apparently asked FSIS to “repeal a provision in its ante-mortem inspection regulations that permits veal calves that are unable to rise from a recumbent position and walk because they are tired or cold to be set apart and held for treatment.” Current provisions allow those calves, if found free of disease, “to proceed to slaughter if they are able to rise and walk after being warmed or rested” and ultimately processed for human food. HSUS has petitioned the agency to amend the regulations “to require that non-ambulatory disabled veal calves be…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released a strategic plan that outlines the 2011-2015 goals and objectives of the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS), which aims to protect “the health of Americans through safer food.” Calling the plan “a dynamic roadmap which outlines the program’s commitment to sustained food safety through monitoring and research,” FDA has requested comments by March 25, 2011. Established in 1996 by FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Agriculture in collaboration with state and local health departments, NARMS “monitors the susceptibility of enteric bacteria to antimicrobial agents of medical importance.” Its strategic goals are to (i) “develop, implement and optimize a shared database, with advanced data acquisition, analysis, and reporting tools”; (ii) “make sampling more representative and more applicable to trend analysis”; (iii) “strengthen collaborative research projects”; and “support international activities that promote food safety, especially those…
President Barack Obama (D) has signed an executive order establishing principles for agencies to follow in adopting regulations addressing such matters as food safety, toxic chemicals, labor, energy, and the environment. The order also requires a review of existing regulations to eliminate or revise those “that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome.” A memorandum to agency heads accompanying the order affirms the administration’s commitment “to eliminating excessive and unjustified burdens on small businesses, and to ensuring that regulations are designed with careful consideration of their effects, including their cumulative effects.” A second memorandum calls for federal agencies to develop plans to make their regulatory compliance and enforcement activities “accessible, downloadable, and searchable online.” See Office of White House Press Secretary News Release, January 18, 2011.
After a Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) investigation of complaints about discoloration and off-odors, a New Jersey-based meat processor has reportedly recalled more than 225,000 pounds of ground beef products distributed to penal institutions in California and Oregon. In a recall release, FSIS reported that its review “uncovered evidence to show that the establishment repackaged and recoded returned products and sent them out for further distribution to institutional customers.” While no reports of illness were apparently associated with the recall, FSIS considers the products to be adulterated “because the establishment’s food safety plan was inadequate to produce wholesome product.” The meatpacker involved is One Great Burger. See FSIS News Release, January 10, 2011; Meatingplace.com, January 12, 2011.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has announced a January 28, 2011, forum to discuss the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) role in ensuring safe food. IOM’s Committee on Review of FDA will meet in Washington, D.C., with agency representatives to review the recommendations put forth in its June 2010 report, Enhancing Food Safety, which described FDA as “reactive, lacking a systematic focus on prevention.” The findings specifically asked FDA to adopt a “risk-based model” that involves increased coordination “with state and other federal agencies that share responsibility for protecting the nation’s food supply.” It also called on Congress to amend the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act “to explicitly provide the authority FDA needs to fulfill its food safety mission.”
A recent investigation by NBC’s Today show has apparently revealed that some imported seafood “may contain toxic chemicals that can cause serious health problems.” Testing conducted by Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Oklahoma authorities has reportedly found contamination in shrimp, catfish, crabmeat and tilapia imported from China, Indonesia Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam. “Footage taken by a U.S. advocacy group of seafood being raised in Vietnam, for example, showed fish in dirty sewage water, pumped with toxic antibiotics and banned drugs just to keep them alive, boosting production and driving down costs,” states the Today report, which claims that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tests less than 2 percent of all seafood from overseas. Those test results allegedly indicated that in 2010, 8 percent of the sampled seafood from China and 16 percent from Taiwan was tainted with chemicals and drugs prohibited in the U.S. food supply. In response, FDA released…
