USP Releases Draft Guidance on Food Fraud Mitigation

The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) has proposed “Guidance on Food Fraud Mitigation,” a new appendix to the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC), to “offer a framework for the food industry and regulators to develop and implement preventative management systems to deal specifically with economically motivated fraudulent adulteration of food ingredients.” The guidance will be published for public comment in the FCC Forum from December 31, 2014, to March 31, 2015, but USP has released it early to provide additional time for review and comment. The document was designed for broad application and to provide a structured approach to characterizing and mitigating food fraud, including guidelines to (i) assess contributory factors, (ii) assess potential impacts and (iii) develop a mitigation strategy. The briefing also promises that “similar guidance sections that tailor this general approach to specific ingredient categories such as milk-based food ingredients” will appear in the future.

Issue 546