The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is planning to host a webinar on Monday, June 27, 2016, to review the agency’s recent Nutrition Facts Labeling Final Rules and what industry needs to know about the changes to nutrition facts labels and serving sizes. The FDA published the final rules in the Federal Register on May 27, … Continue Reading
In a major step aimed at helping consumers maintain healthy dietary practices, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final rule on a new nutrition facts panel that will be required on the back of packaged food and beverages in the coming years. The final rule revises FDA regulations to provide updated nutrition … Continue Reading
In the past few months, consumers may have noticed that some popular chain restaurants have started to display calorie and other nutrition information on menus and placards. The reason can be traced to the release by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of its final rules regarding “Nutrition Labeling of Standard Menu Items in Restaurants … Continue Reading
Earlier today, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for nearly six years, announced, and the FDA confirmed, that she would be stepping down from her position at the agency in March. During her tenure as one of the longest-serving FDA commissioners in recent years, Dr. Hamburg oversaw a wide … Continue Reading
Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made some progress toward implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) by issuing two new proposed food safety rules. Specifically, the agency published proposed rules to establish standards for (1) growing, harvesting, packing, and holding of produce for human consumption (the “Produce Safety Rule”) and for … Continue Reading
The Oregon Public Health Division’s (OPHD) Foodborne Illness Prevention Program announced that it is moving forward with the adoption of the 2009 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Food Code. The new rules will take effect on September 4, 2012. Oddly, however, the agency noted that it would not be adopting the “No Bare Hand Contact” section … Continue Reading
It’s the battle of the network talking heads, M.D. division. In this corner, Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of the Dr. Oz Show on FOX, and former Oprah Winfrey contributor. In the other corner, Dr. Richard Besser, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and now chief health and medical director of ABC News. The issue: … Continue Reading
Fred Degnan, from King & Spalding, led a very insightful presentation on "Responding to Government Investigations and Warning Letters" at the recent ACI food regulatory summit. His presentation led to an interesting discussion about FDA’s close out of investigations. It was generally agreed that the FDA, in essence, is not notifying parties when it has decided to … Continue Reading
The FDA asserts in its inspection manual its right to photograph in your plant. Yet the FDA does not have statutory authority to photograph. The manual cites the following cases as authority for its right to photograph the inside of a plant: Dow Chem. Co. v. United States, 476 U.S. 227 (1986), and United States … Continue Reading
Here is a link to my article, "FDA’s Reportable Food Registry Profoundly Impacts Litigation and the Food Industry," posted this week by the American Bar Association‘s Litigation Section (Products Liability). The article is a follow-on to lively discussions over the litigation impacts of the federal Reportable Food Registry ("RFR") at the ABA’s recent Food & … Continue Reading
The Corn Refiners Association (the “CRA”), a trade organization representing the US corn refining industry, recently petitioned the Food and Drug Administration (the “FDA”) to allow the term “corn sugar” as an alternative label declaration for high fructose corn syrup (“HFCS”). The the FDA’s decision on whether to approve the renaming is expected to take … Continue Reading
In an opinion issued on July 21, 2010, Judge John Gleason of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York largely denied the defendant’s motion for dismissal and held that 10 of the 13 claims in a class action suit brought against Coca-Cola for alleged unlawful health claims on its Vitaminwater … Continue Reading
Jim Prevor has an intriguing story in one of his latest Perishable Pundits, updated here and here, that frankly has me wondering. According to Jim, Freshway Foods discovered E.Coil 0145 in some romaine and, using tracking numbers, was able to trace it to a specific lot supplied by a grower in Yuma, Arizona. It then … Continue Reading
As Ken noted last week, there has been a widespread recall of products containing hydrolized vegetable protein (HVP), a flavor enhancer, after salmonella Tennessee was discovered in product manufactured by Basic Food Flavors of North Las Vegas, Nevada. Consumers, who may have been unaware of the existence of HVP, are starting to learn how pervasive … Continue Reading
Coauthored by Susan Johnson As we have blogged about previously, the Food and Drug Administration (the “FDA”) has been closely monitoring the appropriateness of additives to alcoholic beverages, with a particular emphasis on caffeinated alcoholic beverages. A recent release from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (the “TTB”) indicates that the two agencies … Continue Reading
A recent headline in the Huffington Post breathlessly importuned: "Restaurant Food Has Up to 200% More Calories Than Advertised." If you only read the headline, you might think this was some important information that might change your eating habits. If you read the article, you would discover a balanced set of conclusions from a fairly limited study. … Continue Reading
Melinda Beck has a terrific article in today’s Wall Street Journal about home remedies for the H1N1 virus and (as we have previously blogged) the FDA’s efforts to reign in those making unsupported marketing claims for their remedies. One remedy sweeping the blogosphere like wildfire is the use of onions to soak up flu bugs. … Continue Reading
Ken has previously blogged about liability issues relating to H1N1 flu, also known as swine flu. Today, the FDA has issued a widget to allow employers, consumers and others to browse and search fraudulent H1N1 influenza products and report suspected fraud. The widget can be copied onto any other Web site or blog. The FDA had previously … Continue Reading
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking issue with claims that Cheerios cereal can lower cholesterol. In a letter to General Mills, the FDA says that statements made on Cheerios packaging like the claim that the cereal is “clinically proven to help lower cholesterol” make the product a drug under federal law. The agency suggests … Continue Reading
The Food and Drug Administration is seeking to increase its budget for Fiscal Year 2010 by nearly 20 percent more than FY 2009 – to $3.2 billion. The Washington Post reports that the increase is the largest in the agency’s history. The FDA’s spending request includes $259.3 million to be devoted to the “Protecting America’s Food … Continue Reading
Dr. Margaret Hamburg, President Barack Obama’s nominee to oversee the Food and Drug Administration, is appearing before a U.S. Senate committee this afternoon regarding her nomination. The confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee began at 2:00 p.m. ET. Streaming video is available here. The Associated Press is reporting that, if confirmed, one … Continue Reading
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are recommending against eating raw alfalfa sprouts because of potential salmonella contamination. According to the FDA, the salmonella contamination appears to be in seeds for alfalfa sprouts. As of yesterday, 31 cases of illness with Salmonella Saintpaul have been reported to the … Continue Reading
An update to a case we’ve been following: the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit involving state-law claims over methylmercury content in canned tuna. The Supreme Court’s order in Tri-Union Seafoods, LLC v. Fellner leaves in place the Third Circuit’s ruling that … Continue Reading
The Food and Drug Administration has announced an effort to explore the intentional adulteration of products to increase a producer’s bottom line. So-called “economically motivated adulteration,” or EMA, is the topic of an FDA-sponsored public meeting to be held on May 1 in College Park, Maryland. The meeting follows last year’s concerns about products tainted with … Continue Reading
