Category: Issue 296

  • FDA Issues Guidance on Peanut-Derived Ingredients

    The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week issued guidance to the food industry about the risk of Salmonella contamination posed by peanuts and peanut-derived products used as food ingredients. The guidance also recommended measures that food manufacturers can take to address that risk from their ingredient suppliers and for the products they themselves produce.…

  • Food, Health and Safety Issues Continue to Attract Congressional Attention

    As members of the 111th Congress actively consider how to address food-safety issues and debate in committee whether splitting the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in two would best reform federal oversight, new bills addressing food health and safety continue to be introduced. The most recent include: H.R. 1324 – Introduced March 5, 2009, by…

  • Government Moves Toward Regulating Food Advertising Aimed at Teens

    In a move that has reportedly angered some industry representatives, the U.S. government has set up a working group to study how food is marketed to youth younger than age 18. Currently, food manufacturers are encouraged to abide by industry-imposed rules for food advertising to children younger than 12. The Interagency Working Group on Food…

  • President Obama Names New FDA Chief to Lead Reform Efforts

    President Barack Obama (D) has reportedly tapped former New York City Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Baltimore Health Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein to act as her deputy. A bioterrorism expert and physician, Hamburg previously served as an assistant health secretary in the Clinton administration and helped decrease the…