Food Safety

Sources say a memo by the White House Office of Management and Budget that requires federal agencies submit non-binding guidance to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs -- and potentially to Congress -- could throw a wrench in FDA’s usual guidance-making process, which could negatively affect both the agency and industry.

FDA is taking steps to clarify date labeling on foods and working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Environmental Protection Agency to cut down on food waste, the single largest type of waste in Americans’ daily trash, the agency announced Tuesday (April 9).

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told House lawmakers on Wednesday (April 3) that if the agency doesn't get more resources for its cosmetics safety program it might move cosmetics from the food center to the drug center, since many cosmetics now contain active drug ingredients.

Stakeholders representing both industry and consumers called for a re-think of FDA’s generally-recognized-as-safe (GRAS) process, where companies can put a new ingredient in food without agency review.

Food industry lawyers say that an agreement penned by FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture laying out how the two agencies will regulate cell-based meat and poultry products leaves several key questions unanswered, such as how the review process will work, what standards cell-based meats will have to meet for labeling and what the legal justification is for USDA’s role in regulating the non-traditional meat products

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb’s unexpected resignation leaves myriad agency policy and regulatory plans, many of which Gottlieb identified as key priorities, hanging in the balance.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced Tuesday (March 5) he will leave the agency within the next month and touted his agency’s many accomplishments during his 23 months as chief in a resignation letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, but he didn’t say why he was resigning.

FDA stakeholders are applauding the $269 million increase in FDA funding included in a government spending package to be voted on Thursday (Feb. 14) to avert another shutdown.

A food safety advocate said she was “crestfallen” that FDA’s final guidance detailing how the food industry and agency staff should issue public warnings and recall notifications does not require companies to disclose the names of retailers involved in the recall.