The U.S. House of Representatives will vote today on a bill that would fund the Food and Drug Administration during the government shutdown. The so-called Food and Drug Safety Act was introduced last Thursday by House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Robert Aderholt (R-AL). The bill is the latest in a series of stopgap funding measures proposed in the House. Several attempts to fund individual agencies have cleared the House in recent days, but the White House and Senate leadership have opposed such bills, arguing that the entire government should be reopened. FDA, which oversees 80 percent of the U.S. food supply, has furloughed 45 percent of its staff during the shutdown. As a result, FDA inspectors are not available to perform routine food inspections, and FDA personnel are not available to investigate outbreaks and perform tracebacks through the supply chain on foods suspected of sickening people. In a statement Friday, Caroline Smith DeWaal, the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s food safety director, said that the shutdown “means some outbreaks will never be investigated and solved while others might be solved days or weeks later than they otherwise would. And each day of delay means that more consumers could be sickened from the undiscovered contaminated food.”
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.
The revocation of the use of Citrus Red No. 2 by the FDA will have virtually no impact because industry abandoned the use of the substance several years ago.
As part of its enforcement activities, the Food and Drug Administration sends warning letters to entities under its jurisdiction. Some letters are not posted for public view until weeks or
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
Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream Inc. is recalling select flavors of Outshine Fruit Bars because of consumer complaints about contamination with glass.
Products affected include Outshine Strawberry, Watermelon, Grape, Tangerine
Salata Dressings of Houston, TX, is recalling its Jalapeno Avocado Dressing because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.
The recalled products were distributed in Texas HEB grocery
Grand Central Bakery of Seattle, WA, is recalling loaves of Potato Sourdough because they may contain the presence of pieces of metal.
The following products are subject to recall and
L-Nutra of Culver City, CA, is recalling Prolon brand Apulian Almond & Cocoa Spread because it contains undeclared cashew, pistachio and hazelnut.
People who have an allergy or severe
