The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a public meeting to discuss inspections and compliance provisions of the recently enacted Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Set for June 6, 2011, in Silver Spring, Maryland, the meeting will allow stakeholders to comment on FSMA’s implementation strategies regarding (i) “enforcement authorities”; (ii) “frequency and targeting of facility inspections”; (iii) “manner of inspection in a preventive controls environment”; and (iv) “improving the reportable food registry (RFR).” The meeting will also be available through live webcast, and FDA encourages early registration. Details of FSMA were covered in Issue 376 of this Update. See Federal Register, May 26, 2011.
Tag Archives food safety/FSMA
The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s) Food and Nutrition Board has announced a June 7, 2011, meeting that will focus on the safety of imported foods “with the purposed of engaging science, technology, and policy personnel representing the global food supply chain, government agencies, and academia.” Titled “Food Forum Meeting on Supply Chain and Policy/Regulatory Approaches to Import Safety,” the meeting will include a morning panel featuring actors representing the supply chain “from producer to retailer/food service provider” and an afternoon panel of government officials representing “governance processes from the state to global level.” By focusing on the Food and Drug Administration’s new authority granted under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), including “importer accountability, third party certification, certification for high risk foods, voluntary qualified importer program, and authority to deny entry,” the meeting aims to “provide perspectives and ideas useful for the development and implementation of the multifaceted import tools available…
FDA has issued the first two new regulations under the Food Safety Modernization Act. Effective July 3, 2011, the interim final rules are designed to strengthen FDA’s ability to help prevent potentially unsafe food from reaching U.S. consumers. The first rule amends FDA regulations concerning the detention of food for human or animal consumption. It allows the agency to detain food it believes has been produced under unsanitary or unsafe conditions or is adulterated or misbranded. Previously, the agency was able to detain food products only when it had “credible evidence that a food product presented was contaminated or mislabeled in a way that presented a threat of serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals,” FDA said in a May 4 press release. Now the agency can detain questionable food from the marketplace for up to 30 days while it determines if enforcement action such as seizure…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced an April 20, 2011, public meeting to discuss a Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) mandate to implement “comprehensive, science-based preventive controls across the food supply.” FSMA requires human, pet and animal food and feed facilities registered under section 415 of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 350d) “to take certain preventive actions, including to evaluate the hazards that could affect food manufactured, processed, packed, or held by the facility, and to identify and implement preventive controls to significantly minimize or prevent the occurrence of such hazards.” The meeting will help FDA establish these controls as well as industry guidance “for conducting a hazard analysis, documenting hazards, implementing preventive controls, and documenting their implementation.” In particular, the agency has requested information on “preventive controls used by facilities to identify and address hazards associated with specific types of food and specific processes.”…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched a new “consumer-friendly” web portal detailing the latest recalls, market withdrawals and safety alerts for food and other products regulated by FDA. According to an April 4, 2011, press release, the new searchable database organizes all recall information since 2009 “by date, product brand name, product description, reason for the recall, and the recalling firm.” It also provides a link to news releases about each recall, as well as a photograph of the products in question. Designed with input from stakeholder groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Food Marketing Institute, Grocery Manufacturers Association, and Pew Health Group, the web portal answers to Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) requirements that FDA implement “a consumer-friendly recall search engine within 90 days after the law went into effect.” Under FSMA, the agency must also indicate whether it offered the opportunity…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced its first public meeting to discuss implementation of import safety provisions recently enacted by the Food Safety Modernization Act. Titled “FDA Food Safety Modernization Act: Title III—A New Paradigm for Importers,” the March 29, 2011, meeting in Silver Spring, Maryland, seeks stakeholder input to develop regulations and guidance “on importer verification, the Voluntary Qualified Importer Program, import certifications for food, and third-party accreditation.” FDA requests comments by April 29, 2011. See Federal Register, March 14, 2011. In a related matter, FDA has also announced a public hearing on the agency’s new initiatives for ensuring the safety of imported foods and animal feed to reduce food borne illness. The March 30-31 hearing in College Park, Maryland, will “provide stakeholders the opportunity to discuss FDA’s use of international comparability assessments as a mechanism to enhance the safety of imported foods and animal feed and lessons…
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers have called for rapid tracing of food source contamination to reduce illness and save lives. Casey Barton Behravesh, et al., “2008 Outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul Infections Associated with Raw Produce,” New England Journal of Medicine, February 2011. Investigating the 2008 Salmonella outbreak first blamed on American tomatoes but later pinpointed to Mexican peppers, researchers concluded that the outbreak—linked to approximately 1,500 illnesses and two deaths—“highlights the importance of preventing raw produce contamination.” The report calls for (i) product-tracing systems improvements, including the “ability of the systems to work together for more rapid tracing of implicated products through the supply chain in order to maximize public health protection and minimize the economic burden to industry”; (ii) “an understanding of the mechanisms and ecologies that can lead to contamination of produce on farms”; and (iii) “the institution of additional control measures from the source throughout…
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a March 2011 report identifying 34 areas, including agriculture, “where agencies, offices, or initiatives have similar or overlapping objectives or provide similar services to the same populations; or where government missions are fragmented across multiple agencies.” Commissioned by Congress, this first annual report also summarizes 47 areas where lawmakers or regulators could further reduce the cost of government. These results reflect both new research undertaken by GAO and previously compiled reports, such as the February 16, 2011, edition of the High-Risk Series covered in Issue 382 of this Update. When it comes to the agriculture sector, according to GAO, “[t]he fragmented federal oversight of food safety has caused inconsistent oversight, ineffective coordination, and inefficient use of resources.” The report notes that 15 federal agencies “collectively administer at least 30 food related laws,” with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) overseeing meat, poultry, processed egg…
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has renewed his quest to increase the sentences prosecutors can seek to impose on those who knowingly sell tainted food products. He has reintroduced the Food Safety Accountability Act (S. 216) and promises to schedule hearings in the near future before the Judiciary Committee, which he chairs. While the proposal passed unanimously out of that committee in September 2010, Leahy was unable to attach it to the Food and Drug Administration Food Safety Modernization Act, approved during the lame duck session at the close of the year. With five Democratic co-sponsors, the bill would allow prison sentences up to 10 years for the most egregious food safety violators. Referring to the nationwide Salmonella outbreak and recall involving an Iowa egg producer with a history of violations, Leahy said when he introduced the bill, “It is clear that fines are not enough to protect the public and effectively…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued the first annual report on its Reportable Food Registry (RFR) designed to prevent foodborne illness outbreaks. Summarizing 2,240 online food safety reports from the food industry and public health officials between September 2009 and September 2010, the report “is a measure of our success in receiving early warning problems with food and feed,” states FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods Michael Taylor in the preface. Report findings apparently show that 37.6 percent of the reported food hazards were caused by Salmonella, 34.9 percent by “undeclared allergens/intolerances” and 14.4 percent by Listeria. The report highlighted “two particularly significant issues in multiple commodity groups that require attention”: (i) Salmonella found in such products as spices and seasonings, produce, animal feed and pet food, nuts and seeds; and (ii) allergens and intolerances in fare including baked goods, fruit and vegetable products, prepared foods, dairy, and candy.…
