Earlier this year, a front page story in the Washington Post spotlighted several cases of fraudulent organic certificates, raising questions about organic certification practices overseas. Now, a new report by USDA’s Inspector General (IG) report confirms those doubts. The IG reviewed the process used by the …
As readers of this blog know, in 2016 FDA published a final rule amending the nutrition labeling regulations. Although the industry requested more time to come into compliance with that final rule (which requires revision of virtually every food label), FDA set the compliance date …
As part of the development of mandatory disclosure requirements for bioengineered foods, USDA is required to complete and report on a study to identify potential technological challenges that may impact whether consumers would have access to the bioengineering disclosure through electronic or digital links, such …
As readers of this blog may recall, last year on July 29, 2016, the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard Act (“the Act”) was signed into law. This Act directs the Agricultural Marketing Service of the USDA to develop “a national mandatory bioengineered food disclosure standard” …
In November 2013, the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) of the USDA issued a regulation expanding the circumstances in which labels were eligible for generic label approval (see our previous post here). Under that regulation, meat and poultry labels need not be submitted for label …
In June 2017, two consumer advocacy organizations, the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the National Consumer League (“Plaintiffs”), sued FDA challenging the Agency’s interim final rule extending the compliance date for menu labeling and request for comments (see our previous post here). …
On August 3, 2017, FDA announced the availability of a draft guidance regarding child resistant packaging statements on drug products labels and labeling. To be clear, this draft guidance addresses the inclusion of a voluntary statement in the labeling for drug products, prescription as well …
Natural claims remain fodder for litigation. Although FDA’s December 2015 request for comments certainly impacted the filing of lawsuits (as discussed in our previous post), new cases continue to be filed, and plaintiffs bring up new arguments against natural claims. One relatively recent trend sees plaintiffs …
As we reported a couple of months ago, the naming of plant-based products continues to be an issue. For at least two decades, there has been uncertainty as to the use of the term “milk” and other dairy terms for products derived from plant material …
As readers of this blog know, in May 2016, FDA issued a final rule amending the nutrition labeling regulations for food and dietary supplements. Major amendments include a new requirement to declare “added sugar,” the setting of a daily value for added sugars (but not …
As we previously reported, FDA recently extended the compliance date for its restaurant menu labeling regulations to May 8, 2018. Just one day before the previous (May 5, 2017) compliance date, FDA published an interim final rule (IFR) that delayed compliance for one year and …
On June 13th, FDA’s Office of Nutrition and Food Labeling “announced” that it intends to extend the compliance date for the new Nutrition Facts requirements. As we previously reported, FDA received several citizen petitions requesting an extension of the compliance date. In addition, some in …
As readers of this blog know, natural claims have been and continue to be a frequent basis for consumer class actions. Initially, lawsuits appeared to focus on natural claims for foods (and dietary supplements). However, natural claims for personal care products also have become a …
On April 10, 2017, the American Bakers Association (ABA) submitted a Citizen Petition and a Petition for Stay of Action on FDA’s new definition of dietary fiber in 21 C.F.R. § 101.9(c)(6)(i), and the accompanying recordkeeping requirement in 21 C.F.R. § 101.9(g)(10) and (11). By way …
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are claimed to be one of the biggest threats to global health, sickening an estimated 2 million people in the United States each year. There is evidence that some resistance in bacteria is caused by antibiotic use in food animals (cattle, poultry, swine). …
