For the second weekend in a row, the New York Times editorial board weighed in on food safety issues. On Sunday, the paper published an editorial titled “Get Antibiotics Off the Farm,” saying the paper hopes the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a recent ruling that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration must, after decades of delay, hold withdrawal hearings on certain antibiotics used in agriculture. Last week, the paper called out the Obama administration for holding up key Food Safety Modernization Act rules at the Office of Management and Budget. As the Times explained this week, a federal magistrate judge in New York ruled that the FDA should “quit dillydallying on its three-decade effort to curb indiscriminate use of antibiotics in farm animals to spur their growth.” “He set a timetable for the agency to follow in withdrawing two important drugs — penicillin and two forms of tetracycline — from widespread use in animals,” the editorial continued. “The trouble is, that timetable will give the F.D.A. five more years to complete the process.” The FDA argues that it would be too expensive and time consuming to hold withdrawal hearings, instead the agency has recently adopted a formal voluntary approach to promote the judicious use of agricultural antibiotics. The New York judge told FDA that the voluntary approach shouldn’t keep the agency from also going forward with the withdrawal proceedings. “If the F.D.A. appeals that decision, we hope the Second Circuit Court of Appeals will uphold it and find some way to shorten the time period for the F.D.A. to reach final conclusions.”
The News Desk team at Food Safety News covers breaking developments, regulatory updates, recalls, and key topics shaping food safety today. These articles are produced collaboratively by our editorial staff.
Rwanda has lifted a ban on some South African food products that was put in place in 2017 because of a Listeria outbreak that sickened more than 1,000 people.
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The Food and Drug Administration uses import alerts to enforce U.S. food safety regulations for food from foreign countries. The agency updates and modifies the alerts as needed.
Recent
Prairie Farms is announcing a recall of select Prairie Farms Gallon Fat Free Milk produced at its Dubuque, IA, facility and distributed to Woodman’s stores in Illinois and Wisconsin.
Aoun brand tahineh is under recall in Canada because of contamination with Salmonella.
The recall was triggered by test results from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
The recalled tahineh was
Thanksgiving is a time for family, friends and feasting. Once the holiday meal ends, the spotlight turns to enjoying the leftovers in the days ahead. To keep those leftovers safe
