The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may no longer extend deadlines on releasing policies set forth by the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act, according to a ruling by a judge in the U.S. District Court of Northern California. Judge Phyllis Hamilton has sided with the Center for Food Safety (CFS) in a lawsuit against FDA over FSMA deadlines, which were originally ordered by Congress to be completed by July 2012. The suit was originally filed by CFS in August 2012. “The Court ruled that FDA violated the law in April 2013, and set an injunction remedy in place in June, with new deadlines for draft and final rules,” CFS wrote in a press release. “Last month FDA moved for reconsideration or a stay of the injunction with regard to the deadlines for two of those rules, food transport safety and intentional adulteration. Judge Hamilton denied FDA’s motion and kept firm the dates for completion of all the rules.” “The court understands the FDA’s position, and is in sympathy with it, but remains of the opinion that the dispute here is between the FDA and Congress,” Hamilton said. “This court is unwilling to grant extension after extension, or to permit the FDA to continually delay publication of this rule, in the face of the clear Congressional directive that this be a closed-end process.”