By Riëtte van Laack – The Organic Foods Production Act requires that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) establish national standards for the production and handling of organic products to assure that agricultural products marketed as organic meet consistent uniform standards. USDA established the National Organic …
By Ricardo Carvajal – FDA published a final rule implementing the directive in the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act ("FALCPA") to define the term “gluten-free” (and other terms that FDA regards as equivalent, namely “no gluten,” “free of gluten,” and “without gluten”). The threshold …
By Riëtte van Laack – In March 2012, in a consumer action against Jamba Juice, filed in California, plaintiffs asserted, among other things, that steviol glycosides should not be considered natural because of the “chemical processing” used to extract them. Earlier this month, another lawsuit concerning …
By Ricardo Carvajal – Last Friday, FDA released two additional proposed rules that are fundamental to the agency’s implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA): Foreign Supplier Verification Programs for Importers of Food for Humans and Animals (FSVP rule) and Accreditation of Third-Party Auditors/ …
By Riëtte van Laack – In a lawsuit filed in federal court, meat industry representatives have challenged the constitutionality of Country of Origin Labeling (“COOL”) regulations as amended by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (“AMS”) in May of 2013. To understand the origin of the lawsuit, it …
By Kurt R. Karst – “… — …” – That’s the international Morse code distress signal commonly shown as SOS. SOS is also in the title of the acronymized “FDA SOS Act,” or the “FDA Safety Over Sequestration Act,” which a bipartisan group of members …
Two companies, DKSH Italia Srl and Polycell Technologies LLC, have filed a citizen petition with FDA asking that it expand the health claim on soluble fiber and coronary heart disease to include their product, Glucagel. The petition describes Glucagel as a “barley beta-glucan fiber that …
By Ricardo Carvajal – A federal district court rejected FDA’s proposed “target timeframes” for issuance of regulations to implement major provisions of the Food Safety Modernization Act ("FSMA"), finding them to be “an inadequate response to the request that the parties submit a proposal regarding …
By Kurt R. Karst – It was 75 years ago today, on June 25, 1938, that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (“FDC Act”), which replaced the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, 34 Stat. 768, …
The National Institutes of Health ("NIH") recently launched a database of labels of dietary supplements being sold in the United States. The database includes, among other information, directions for use, ingredients, business contact information, and claims taken directly from product labels. The database can be …
By Etan J. Yeshua – FDA has announced several key areas on which it plans to focus its food- and cosmetic-related research and regulatory efforts. The plan specifically names imported foods, nanoparticles in cosmetics, dietary supplement toxicology, and obesity, among others, as specific areas of …
By Riëtte van Laack – Last week, Health Science Funding, LLC filed what might be the first medical food lawsuit against FDA. (A copy of the Complaint is available here, and a copy of the Motion for a Preliminary Injunction is available here.) Plaintiff markets what it …
By Ricardo Carvajal – In previous postings (see here and here), we reported on the Center for Food Safety’s ("CFS’s") lawsuit seeking to compel FDA to accelerate its implementation of FSMA. In April, the presiding court ruled that FDA’s delay violated the APA and ordered …
By Kurt R. Karst – A Draft Committee Report made available by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations that would, once finalized, accompany the Fiscal Year 2014 Agriculture/FDA Apprropriations bill (currently available as a Full Committee Draft), lays out a laundry list of …
By Riëtte van Laack – On Friday, May 24, 2013, the California Assembly unanimously voted (72-0) for bill AB 227, amending Proposition 65 by including a new provision allowing certain small business owners 14 days to fix an alleged violation of Proposition 65’s warning requirements. AB …
