Food Safety

The Senate health committee sent stakeholders a draft of its cosmetics bill, obtained by Inside Health Policy, in a bid to gather input on the proposed federal oversight reforms, which include allowing HHS to suspend facilities or ingredient listing, requiring manufacturers to report adverse events to HHS within a set period of time, mandating manufacturing and processing facilities register with HHS, establishing labeling requirements, and allowing HHS to inspect facility records if it believes a cosmetic product is adulterated and can cause serious adverse health consequences.

The Endocrine Society is disappointed that FDA is holding up preliminary results from a new study as further justification of its previous finding that bisphenol A (BPA) is safe for use in food containers and packaging.

The California Farm Bureau Federation is calling for FDA to rewrite all Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) rules, but it takes particular issue with the produce safety rule, which the group says unfairly subjects high- and low-risk produce to the same standards and is overly vague.

Consumer groups and private laboratories are waiting with bated breath for FDA to get a Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)-mandated lab accreditation program, which would certify private laboratories for analyzing food imports, off the ground.

Fast casual chain Panera is petitioning FDA to define egg in its regulations and bar eggs with added ingredients or processing from being called such.

The House Energy & Commerce oversight subcommittee will hold a hearing Friday (Jan. 19) on FDA’s handling of food recalls. The hearing will discuss a recently released report by the HHS Office of Inspector General, which identified key flaws in FDA’s response to food borne outbreaks.

In 2018, FDA will focus on making the process for developing and approving biosimilar drugs more efficient, modernizing its own internal processes and technologies, and developing a comprehensive plan to encourage development of healthy foods, the agency announced in its 2018 Strategic Policy Roadmap released on Thursday (Jan. 11).

In response to comments from food industry stakeholders, FDA won’t subject certain entities and activities to some provisions of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) that pertain to current good manufacturing practices (CGMPs) and risk-based controls for human and animal food; foreign supplier verification; and produce safety standards for growing, harvesting, packing and holding produce intended for humans, the agency explained in guidance document and press announcement on Thursday (Jan. 4).

FDA issued long-awaited guidance answering industry questions about how to comply with its menu labeling rule, slated to go into effect May 7, 2018, but the industry noted it will exercise enforcement discretion for out-of-compliance companies to help them comply with the law.