The White House Office of Management and Budget significantly weakened the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s draft food safety rules, documents posted on the Federal Register last week show. The hundreds of pages of documents, first discovered and reported by Food and Chemical News (subscription only) on Friday, confirm what food safety insiders had suspected… Continue Reading
Food Chemical News is reporting that documents released on regulations.gov on Feb. 28 reveal cuts made by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to the implementing regulatory package for the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Those apparent cuts include striking out requirements for food companies to test for microbial contamination of environments and finished… Continue Reading
After an Appellate Body of the World Trade Association (WTO) struck down the USA’s County of Origin Labeling (COOL), the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the international panel did not have the authority to change American law. With a fast-approaching May 23 deadline to be in compliance with the WTO, the U.S. Department… Continue Reading
If Congress allows the sequester to kick in on March 1, cuts to food safety would be one of the “most damaging” consequences of the automatic budget reductions, according to a memo put out by the White House on Friday. The analysis by the Obama administration’s Office of Management and Budget said the U.S. Food… Continue Reading
A proposed rule by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service to label mechanically tenderized beef products is now under extended review at the White House Office of Management and Budget. Food safety advocates, the meat industry and FSIS said they do not know details about the status of the review or… Continue Reading
With the Friday release of the two first food safety rules, which were mandated by the Food Safety Modernization Act signed into law by President Obama two years ago, came a flood of responses from a variety of stakeholders, many of whom had lobbied for the rules and had for months called on the White… Continue Reading
January 4, 2011 was a landmark day for food safety advocates nationwide. It was the day President Obama signed into law the first major piece of federal legislation concerning food safety since 1938: the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act. But as the act’s two-year anniversary approaches, many of its major components are stuck in the… Continue Reading
Opinion
It was one week short of 700 days when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) dropped the hammer on the economy of Portales, NM. It was that long between Jan. 11, 2011, the day President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) into law after it had been passed by large bipartisan majorities… Continue Reading
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is still working “expeditiously” to implement major portions of the Food Safety Modernization Act, legislation that has largely sat in budgetary limbo since President Obama signed it into law on January 4, 2011 – nearly two years ago. “The Obama Administration is committed to food safety and… Continue Reading
The Food Safety Modernization Act’s biennial food facility registration requirement was intended to go into effect Oct. 1, 2012; however since that day a yellow box has been posted on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s website indicating that the agency is not currently accepting registration renewals. The food facility registration requirement of FSMA mandates… Continue Reading
The sequestration slated to take effect at the first of the year is “bad policy,” and Congress should avoid it by taking action on deficit reduction, says a recent analysis by the White House Office of Management and Budget. A nearly 400 page document released late last week by the administration warns of the impact… Continue Reading