Food Safety

The House Appropriations Committee passed an FDA spending bill Tuesday (April 19) that hikes funding for food safety oversight, inserts a handful of provisions from the House-passed 21st Century Cures bill, slates $10 million for FDA to combat Zika and Ebola outbreaks, and prevents FDA from limiting sodium in food until bodies outside the agency write dietary reference intake reports.

FDA released a long-awaited final rule on sanitary transportation of human and animal food Tuesday (April 5) that includes a number of changes in response to stakeholder concerns: The agency included new temperature control language, excluded farm transportation, added “loaders” as a covered party and removed molluscan shellfish from the live food animals exemption.

FDA on Friday laid the groundwork for the largest allocation of funds -- $19 million -- to help state agencies enforce new produce safety rule, and large food processors and grocers are urging Congress to give FDA even more money for food safety efforts.

Reps. Don Young (R-AK) and Peter DeFazio (D-OR) recently filed legislation that would require the recently FDA-approved AquaAdvantage Salmon to include Genetically Engineered or GE in its market name as well as require HHS conduct an independent third-party review of the agency's decision to approve the genetically engineered fish.

Following Senate agriculture committee approval of a bill creating a voluntary labeling standard for genetically engineered (GE) foods, four Senate Democrats filed legislation last week that would make labeling mandatory.

The Senate agriculture committee approved a measure Tuesday (March 1) that would create a national voluntary labeling standard for products that contain genetically engineered (GE) foods and preempt state laws requiring mandatory labeling -- legislation both parties say they are working to modify before the full chamber votes.

Robert Califf, following an 89-4 Senate vote Wednesday, becomes the new FDA commissioner at a time when the agency’s actions and policies are under intense scrutiny.

With a request of $5.1 billion for FDA, President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2017 budget proposal seeks a $358 billion funding bump for FDA with a focus on medical product safety, food safety, the vice president's cancer “moonshot” initiative and precision medicine.

The White House on Wednesday (Jan. 27) reasserted its support for FDA chief-nominee Robert Califf amid uncertainty over a Senate confirmation vote given that four senators -- three Democrats, including presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders (VT), and one GOP member -- have now placed holds on the process.