USDA Issues Final Rule on Food Container Standards

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Marketing Service
(AMS) has issued a final rule, effective Oct. 17, 2013, amending regulations
governing the standards for the condition of food containers. According to
the agency, revising existing tables, removing operating characteristic curves
and updating language in the standards will render them applicable to most
types of food containers and align them with current industry practices. AMS
also noted that since the standards were last amended in May 1983, innovations
in packaging technologies have provided an increasingly wide variety of
acceptable new food containers, including aseptic packaging, metal cans with
easy-open lids, and plastic rings that hold several containers together. See
Federal Register, September 17, 2013.