The Food and Drug Administration published four revised provisions of the Food Safety Modernization Act today. The rules are for produce safety, preventive controls for human food, preventive controls for animal food, and Foreign Supplier Verification Programs. The produce safety rules is being revised for more flexible criteria for determining agricultural water safety along with … Read more
Members of the U.S. House Roda DeLauro (D-CT) and Sam Farr (D-CA) sent a letter last week to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to ask them to fully fund the Food Safety and Modernization Act of 2011 (FSMA) rather than relying on … Read more
The FDA has issued advanced notice of proposed rulemaking to seek public input on part of the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011. The FDA may require manufacturers and distributors to submit “consumer-oriented” information when a recall is issued that will help consumers accurately identify whether they have the food that has been recalled. The … Read more
The FDA has released a part of the Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA) that addresses intentional adulteration of the food supply. The rule, called “Focused Mitigation Strategies to Protect Food Against Intentional Adulteration” addresses acts of terrorism. Domestic and foreign facilities must addresses vulnerable processes to prevent this type of terrorism, which is intended … Read more
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied an FDA motion yesterday to delay issuing a rule required by the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011. FDA did not meet deadlines set by Congress, so the Center for Food Safety sued that agency. The court agreed with CFS that delaying the rules was unacceptable, and re-established … Read more
Federal Judge Phyllis Hamilton has sided with the Center for Food Safety again and told the FDA that there can be no more extensions of rules in the Food Safety Modernization Act. The rules should have been completed last July, but there have been delays at the Office of Management and Budget, and the FDA … Read more
The FDA has finally released two Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) rules designed to improve the safety of imported foods. The rules will require that anyone importing food into this country must verify that the supplier is using prevention-based food safety practices. They must also create a system for certifying third-party auditors. These rules will … Read more
The number of cases in the hepatitis A outbreak linked to frozen berry mix that contains imported pomegranate seeds continued its steady climb this week as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued final reports on two Salmonella outbreaks linked to imported foods- cucumbers from Mexico and tahini paste from Turkey. Over the … Read more
Federal Judge Phyllis Hamilton of the U.S. District court of Northern California rejected the FDA’s proposed timeline for completion of the Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA) timeline and ordered the agency to publish all regulations by June 30, 2015. In her decision, Hamilton wrote, “the court finds defendant’s ‘target timeframes’ to be an inadequate … Read more
Last week, Colin Chase, a former employee of Brothers International Food Corporation, sued the company in federal court, alleging the company violated the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) whistleblower protection. The Director of eCommerce was fired in July 2012 after telling management that expired potato chips were being re-dated and placed on the market for sale. He was also … Read more