Food Safety

FDA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and United States Department of Agriculture will hold their first public meeting in three years on the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS), the agencies announced Tuesday (Sept. 20).

FDA last week approved the first-ever qualified health claim urging consumption of a food at an early age, in this case peanuts, to reduce a future allergy risk and signaled the agency backs more research on how to introduce allergenic foods to prevent and treat food allergies.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb Thursday (Sept. 14) beat back characterizations of actions being taken by the Trump-FDA as deregulatory, and argued he put the nutrition fact's regulation on ice shortly after taking the agency's helm because FDA wasn't prepared to implement it after the Obama administration pushed up the implementation deadline in the 11th hour.

FDA announced Tuesday (Sept. 5) it will hold a public meeting Oct. 3 to gather stakeholder input on the agency's plan to develop a list of dietary ingredients that existed before the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 went into effect and thus are exempt from supplement notification requirements.

FDA has provided commissioned corps officers as part of the overall HHS deployment of medical equipment and resources to help address public health needs and assess critical health infrastructure needs in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced Friday (Aug. 25) that the agency will issue guidance by the end of the year to help food establishments meet federal menu labeling requirements by next year's extended compliance date -- a move viewed by stakeholders as indication the agency won't further delay the compliance deadline even though FDA recently told a federal court it is reviewing all options as it reviews comments on its interim final rule.

Answering the calls of congressional Republicans, FDA is siding with the food industry in a lawsuit seeking to stop New York City's menu labeling regulation from being enforced until FDA implements its national standard.

The House Energy & Commerce Committee on Thursday (July 27) passed 39-14 bipartisan legislation that would loosen the Affordable Care Act's menu labeling requirements for certain food establishments, give HHS more flexibility to set compliance dates and limit liability for noncompliance with labeling requirements, despite concerns from some Democrats that the bill would create confusion in the marketplace and weaken current requirements.

FDA is stopping work on several key rules including those regulating compounding, direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising, child-focused tobacco sales, dietary supplement manufacturing practices and food safety testing, according to a list published Friday (July 21) by the White House Office of Management and Budget.