On December 6, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released final guidance intended to assist industry and FDA staff by recommending standards for accrediting third-party certification bodies for the voluntary third-party certification program established under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The final guidance document fulfills section 808(b)(2) of the FD&C Act [...]
On December 14, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a final rule entitled Amendments to Accreditation of Third-Party Certification Bodies to Conduct Food Safety Audits and to Issue Certifications to Provide for the User Fee Program (the “Final Rule”). The Final Rule is effective January 13, 2017, and provides for a user [...]
On December 1, 2016, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a proposed rule updating its Nutrition Facts Labeling regulations. The proposed rule largely parallels the final rule issued by FDA to revising Nutrition Facts Labeling. The FSIS proposed rule also updates Reference Amounts Customarily Consumed (RACCs). Among [...]
On December 14, 2016, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service published revisions to guidance on food product dating. The new guidance is aimed at reducing food waste through encouraging food manufacturers and retailers that apply product dating to use a “Best if Used By” date label. This post summarizes the [...]
On December 21, 2016, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a final notice in the Federal Register revising 18 U.S. grade standards for canned vegetables issued on or before August 3, 1998. AMS is replacing the two-term grading system (dual nomenclature) with a single term to describe each [...]
On December 19, 2016, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) published in the Federal Register an announcement that January 1, 2020, will be the uniform compliance date for meat and poultry labeling regulations that are issued in calendar years 2017 and 2018. This action does not change existing requirements [...]
On Tuesday, December 15, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published draft guidance for industry entitled “Fruit and Vegetable Juice as Color Additives in Foods.” The agency is requesting comments on the draft guidance by February 13, 2017. FDA issued the guidance to respond to a number of questions relating to whether certain [...]
On Friday, December 2, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it will shortly be releasing a final rule to delay the compliance date for the Menu Labeling Regulation until May 5, 2017. This compliance date is now aligned with FDA’s enforcement date. In 2015 Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act (Omnibus) [...]
On November 23, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that January 1, 2020 will be the uniform compliance date for food labeling regulations that are issued in calendar years 2017 and 2018. This action does not change existing requirements for compliance dates contained in final rules published before January 1, 2017. The [...]
In October 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released draft guidance to industry entitled “Describing a Hazard That Needs Control in Documents Accompanying the Food, as Required by Four Rules Implementing the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).” The draft guidance may be found here. For more details, please see this Lieberman PLLC [...]
