Category: Department of Agriculture
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FSIS Issues Final Rule Defining Classes of Poultry
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued a final rule amending the definitions and standards of classes of poultry ready for market. Effective January 1, 2014, the measure aims to “ensure that the labeling of poultry products is truthful and not misleading.” According to FSIS, poultry classes have been…
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U.S. Senate Adopts Amendment to Keep Spuds in Schools
The U.S. Senate has reportedly adopted an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2012 Senate Agriculture Appropriations bill that would prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from reducing the amount of potatoes and other starches in school meals. According to Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), who authored the bipartisan measure, USDA earlier this year “proposed a rule…
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APHIS Proposes Amendments to Bioterrorism Protection Act
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued a proposed rule that would amend and republish “the list of selected agents and toxins that have the potential to pose a severe threat to animal or plant health, or to animal or plant products.” The Agricultural Bioterrorism Protection Act of…
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Upcoming Codex Meeting to Discuss Food Import, Export Inspections
The Office for the Under Secretary for Food Safety, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration have announced an October 4, 2011, public meeting in Washington, D.C., to provide information and receive public comments on draft U.S. positions to be discussed at the 19th session of the Codex Committee on Food…
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Meat, Poultry, Egg Interests Oppose User Fees for Food Inspections
A coalition of meat, poultry and egg industry interests recently submitted a letter to the congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, also known as the “Super Committee,” urging it to reject a proposed U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) fiscal year 2012 budget that would impose “user fees” on industry for government-mandated food safety inspection…
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FDA and FSIS to Collect Information on Dietary Sodium Intake
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) have established new dockets “to obtain comments, data and evidence relevant to the dietary intake of sodium as well as current and emerging approaches designed to promote sodium reduction.” FDA and FSIS have warned that current sodium…
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USDA Intends to Ban Six E. Coli Strains in Raw Beef Products
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) recently announced its intention to prohibit six serogroups of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) in addition to E. coli O157:H7. According to FSIS, the agency plans to begin testing for the additional STEC on March 5, 2012, at which time those six strains will…
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GAO Faults Agency Progress on Antibiotic Use in Animals
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a September 2011 report claiming that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have failed to obtain credible data on the use of antibiotics in food animals, as well as the presence of resistant bacteria in animals and retail meat.…