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 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
The Food and Drug Administration has named Donna Garren as the new director for its office of produce safety.
The office is housed in the FDA’s office of microbiology
California has become the first state to standardize sell-by dates on food labels.
The law was touted as a way to decrease food waste in the state, but it
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
Fayus Inc., doing business as Yusol International Foods of Sacramento, CA, is recalling OLA-OLA POUNDED YAM because the product may contain undeclared milk in the form of sodium caseinate,
Eunha Fisheries Co. Ltd. of Busan, Republic of Korea, is recalling certain Sliced Korean Halibut and Flounder Sashimi products because the accompanying soy sauce and vinegar red pepper paste packets
Gellert Global Group of Elizabeth, NJ, is recalling 8.1 oz packages of ALDI Brand Fusia Asian Inspirations Kimchi & Tofu Kimbap because they may contain undeclared tuna.
People who
