By Riëtte van Laack – A couple of weeks ago, the Food Safety Inspection Service of the USDA (FSIS) announced the availability of an updated compliance guideline regarding animal-raising claims. The previous guideline dated from 2002. Traditionally, the FSIS has interpreted the Federal Meat Inspection Act (“FMIA”) …
By Riëtte van Laack – On Sept. 27, 2016, FDA announced the availability of several documents regarding the “healthy” claim on foods. Under the current regulation, the term “healthy” (or similar terms) – when used with an explicit or implicit claim or statement about a nutrient in …
By Ricardo Carvajal – FDA’s issuance of a draft guidance for industry titled Substantiation for Structure/Function Claims Made in Infant Formula Labels and Labeling marks the first issuance of a guidance that addresses structure/function (SF) claim substantiation for a conventional food. As FDA explains in the guidance, …
By Wes Siegner – After 20 years of marketing vinpocetine, and accepting without objection the filing of 5 new dietary ingredient notifications (NDINs), FDA has “tentatively concluded” that vinpocetine is an illegal dietary ingredient for two reasons: 1) it does not fit within the statutory list …
The American Conference Institute’s (“ACI’s”) Food Law Regulation Boot Camp is slated to take place at the InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile in Chicago, Illinois from November 15-16, 2016. The conference is billed as a way to “[c]onnect the dots of food regulatory law and gain …
By Riëtte van Laack – On August 17, FDA published in the Federal Register the long awaited final rule, “Substances Generally Recognized as Safe.” The final rule is based on the proposed rule from 1997, and a reopening of the comment period with supplemental questions in …
By Riëtte van Laack – On August 24, 2016, the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the availability of its compliance guidance regarding “Statements That Bioengineered or Genetically Modified (GM) Ingredients or Animal Feed Were Not Used in the Production …
By Riëtte van Laack – On August 15, 2016 FDA simultaneously issued two guidance documents, the Draft Guidance, Calorie Labeling of Articles of Food in Vending Machines and the Final Guidance, Small Entity Compliance Guide (SECG), Calorie Labeling of Articles of Food in Vending Machines, to help …
By Etan J. Yeshua – Last week, FDA issued for the dietary supplement industry a draft guidance document that largely doubles-down on controversial positions the Agency has previously taken. The draft guidance – “Dietary Supplements: New Dietary Ingredient Notifications and Related Issues” – replaces the draft …
By Riëtte van Laack – Yesterday, FDA announced the availability of a webpage providing information to industry regarding the requirements of the recently finalized Nutrition Facts and serving size regulations. FDA clarifies that until the compliance date of July 26, 2018 (or July 26, 2019 for companies …
By Riette van Laack and Ricardo Carvajal – On Thursday July 14, the House approved legislation authorizing USDA to establish and administer a National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard. The bill, S.764, was previously approved by the Senate. The bill had been promoted as an urgent and necessary compromise by …
By Ricardo Carvajal – In an unusual “Early Alert,” the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) publicly took FDA to task for allegedly lacking “an efficient and effective food recall initiation process that helps ensure the safety of …
By Riëtte van Laack – On May 31, 2016, the Food Safety Coalition submitted a Petition to the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) to amend regulations requiring safe food handling instructions (SHI) on certain meat and poultry products. The Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) and the Poultry …
By Riëtte van Laack – On May 27, 2016, FDA published the final rule, required under FSMA, regarding “the Mitigation Strategies to Protect Food against Intentional Adulteration.” Food defense has been on the agenda ever since the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 …
By Riëtte van Laack – On Friday the 20th of May, FDA announced the availability of the final regulations for nutrition labeling and serving sizes (in prepublication format). The final regulations will be published in the Federal Register on May 27, 2016. That date will be used …
