http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-grocery-store-shopping-trip-to-local-basket-cart-rows-isles-numerous-varieties-products-image43525101Many requirements of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) have yet to be implemented, and one of them is a recall notification system for grocery stores described in Section 211 of the law. The section on improving the Reportable Food Registry required that within one year of FSMA’s enactment in 2011, FDA “develop and publish a list of acceptable conspicuous locations and manners” for grocery stores to post recall notices. FDA was also directed to use consumer-oriented information submitted by facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold food for human or animal consumption to create one-page summaries for grocery stores to post. In March 2014, the agency published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) and sought input on the requirements such as what information should be required in consumer notifications and the format in which the information should be presented. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has now written to Michael Taylor, FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, calling for the agency to immediately issue guidance to implement the recall notification system. “To date, the agency has failed to meet each deadline and continues to delay implementation of a recall notification system required by law and crucial for consumer safety,” wrote David Plunkett, senior staff attorney for CSPI’s Food Safety Program. CSPI previous wrote to FDA about the delay in July 2012, filed comments in response to the ANPRM in 2014, and has raised the issue at public hearings and in meetings with the agency. “The current method of posting notices on FDA’s website and issuing press releases only reach those few consumers who actively look for them,” Plunkett wrote. In 2014, CSPI surveyed its members and found that 98 percent of them wanted grocery stores to be required to provide information on food recalls. Only 12 percent of participants said they heard about recalls from their grocery store. Inadequate notification about recalls leaves consumers vulnerable to contracting foodborne illness. FDA currently has its hands pretty full with finalizing seven major FSMA rules — the first of which are due at the end of August — but Plunkett argued that issuing guidance for recall notifications is “a simple matter which should not unduly tax agency resources.”