Tag: food safety
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Advocacy Group Urges Government Action on Food Exports from China
Food & Water Watch has issued a report cautioning that potentially unsafe food from China may likely provide the next food safety scare in the United States. Titled “A Decade of Dangerous Food Imports from China,” the report describes “where [Chinese] food manufacturers are legendary for cutting corners, substituting dangerous ingredients, and compromising safety in…
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CSPI Wants FSIS to Declare Salmonella in Meat and Poultry an Adulterant
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has filed a citizen petition “requesting that the administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) . . . issue an interpretive rule declaring certain delineated strains of antibiotic-resistant [ABR] Salmonella, when found in ground meat and ground poultry, to be adulterants” under federal law.…
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FSIS Meetings Target Plan Calling for Mandatory Catfish Inspections
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced two public meetings on a proposed rule requiring mandatory FSIS inspections of imported and domestic catfish and catfish products. The meetings will be held May 24 in Washington, D.C., and May 26 in Stoneville, Mississippi. The proposed rule was highlighted in Issue…
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FSIS Final Rule Establishes Cooperative Meat & Poultry Inspection Program
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has published a final rule establishing a new voluntary cooperative program that will permit state-inspected establishments with fewer than 25 employees “to ship meat and poultry products in interstate commerce.” Under the program, which will be administered by state inspectors, selected establishments must…
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AMS Proposes Leafy Green Marketing Agreement
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (UDSA’s) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has issued a proposed rule that would establish a voluntary National Leafy Green Marketing Agreement (NLGMA) “to regulate the handling of leafy green vegetables, including but limited to lettuce, spinach, and cabbage.” According to AMS, the proposed agreement would “authorize the development and implementation of…
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GAO Report Suggests School-Meals Safety Initiatives
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report recommending how the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) could improve the safety of school meals purchased through its commodities program. The report recommends that USDA instruct the commodity program to (i) “develop a systematic and transparent process to determine whether foods offered by the program…
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FDA Issues Updated Seafood Safety Guidelines
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the availability of updated safety standard guidelines for the seafood industry. The 476-page document “supports and complements FDA’s regulations for the safe and sanitary processing and importing of fish and fishery products using hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) methods” required of commercial seafood processors. The…
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Senate Adopts Food Safety Crime Bill
The U.S. Senate has approved a bill (S. 216) designed to “strengthen criminal penalties for companies that knowingly violate food safety standards and place tainted food products on the market,” according to the legislation’s sponsor, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). The proposal would increase offenses from a misdemeanor to a felony, establish fines and give law…