Food Safety

FDA released a long-awaited final rule officially replacing the voluntary generally recognized as safe affirmation petition process with a voluntary GRAS notification procedure for substances used in food, drawing strong protests from food and consumer safety stakeholders who say FDA is handing off responsibility to regulate the food supply to industry and leaving one advocacy group to explore legal options.

President Obama signed the controversial GMO labeling bill into law on Friday (July 29), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has already set up a working group to begin the rulemaking process, which it has two years to complete.

House Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway (R-TX) said today he would reluctantly support the Senate bill to mandate labeling of genetically modified foods, and signaled the House would vote on the bill next week.

Vermont Senators Patrick Leahy (D) and Bernie Sanders (I) both complained Wednesday that a goal of the compromise GMO food labeling bill moving through the Senate floor is to overturn Vermont's GMO labeling law.

House Energy & Commerce leaders are raising new concerns about FDA's ability to protect trade secrets and confidential information after federal officials in New York recently charged a political intelligence consultant and former FDA official with obtaining the status of a generic drug and illegally providing the information to a portfolio manager.

The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), the major dietary supplement industry trade group, is urging FDA to remove dietary supplements from a proposed rule on fixed-combination products and co-packaged drugs, in comments sent to the agency.

FDA denied a citizen petition from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) Wednesday (June 1) calling for stricter controls over salt levels in food, on the same day the agency released draft voluntary guidelines for industry to reduce sodium levels in food products and food served in restaurants.

FDA finalized the last of seven Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) rules designed to protect against intentional adulteration where the intent is to cause wide-spread public harm.

FDA moved forward with controversial updates to the food nutrition facts label, such as adding a declaration of grams and a percent daily value for “added sugars,” even though some industry stakeholders had argued the sugar labeling wasn't justified.