Food & Beverage Litigation & Regulatory Update

Tag: allergen

  • FDA Releases Food Guidance Priorities List

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released a list of the draft and final guidance topics that the agency is prioritizing for 2022. The list includes guidance on allergens, cell-cultured foods, heavy metals in juice and labeling of plant-based alternatives to milk and animal-derived foods. According to a caveat in the constituent update,…

  • Warning Letter Provides Insight on FDA’s Priorities

    By Of Counsel John Johnson III The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Warning Letter to Maribel’s Sweets, Inc., provides an important look into how FDA is implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)’s Preventive Control Rule. This is the requirement that a food facility must have and implement a written food safety plan to…

  • Look Beyond the Label: How the FASTER Act Impacts Food Manufacturing

    By Anna El-Zein and John Johnson III Sesame is the ninth Major Food Allergen with the passage of the Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education, and Research Act (FASTER) Act on April 23, 2021. Starting on January 1, 2023, any food “introduced or delivered for introduction into interstate commerce” must appropriately declare the presence of “sesame”…

  • Bill on Mandatory Sesame Labeling Passes U.S. Legislature

    The U.S. House of Representatives has voted 415-11 to pass the Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education, and Research Act of 2021 (FASTER Act), a bill that will expand the definition of “major food allergen” to include sesame. The bipartisan bill, which passed the Senate in March 2021, will head to the White House for President…

  • EFSA Releases Guidance on Allergen Labeling, GMOs, Infant Formula, More

    The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has released several guidance documents to aid stakeholders in complying with EU regulations on food issues implemented on March 27, 2021. The publications provide guidance on: Applying for an exemption from mandatory food allergen labeling; Renewing applications for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food and feed; Preparing applications for…

  • A Taste of FDA’s 2021 Food Priorities: Undeclared Major Food Allergens

    By Associate Anna El-Zein & Of Counsel John Johnson III Recent actions by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suggest that, in 2021, the Agency will sharpen its focus on enforcement efforts to ensure packaged foods appropriately declare the presence of major food allergens. In a series of high-profile warning letters and press releases,…

  • FDA Warns Frito-Lay About Allergen Labeling

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned Frito-Lay Inc. about “serious violations of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food regulation” because its investigators found potato chips to be misbranded “in that the finished product labels did not declare a major food allergen (milk)” in addition…

  • FDA Issues Guidance on Sesame Labeling

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued draft guidance “encouraging food manufacturers to voluntarily declare sesame in the ingredient list on food labels.” The guidance notes that “sesame can, in some circumstances (such as when ground and used in a spice blend), be declared in an ingredient statement as simply ‘spice’ or ‘flavor,’…