A federal judge in California wants the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to settle on new achievable deadlines for implementing regulations set forth in the Food Safety Modernization Act. U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton used her federal bench in Oakland to chide FDA for “admittedly” failing to comply with the mandatory rule-making schedule contained in the FSMA. In other words, the judge found FDA is violating the very law it is supposed to be implementing to prevent outbreaks of foodborne disease. Hamilton said the aggressive timelines in the law have turned out to be “unachievable.” She added, “endless delay does not serve the purpose of the FSMA.” The judge’s decision is at least an academic victory for the Center for Food Safety, which sued FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to help dislodge the FSMA rules from the elite regulatory unit in the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OMB kept the rules under wraps for the entire 2012 election year, and only after they finally became public earlier this year did it become known that the White House had scaled them back considerably. FDA has not said whether it will appeal the trial court’s call for a new set of deadlines.
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Also, the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) is calling for a new World Health Assembly resolution to update guidelines on contamination of powdered formula.
A report has provided details on the number of enforcement actions and border controls as well as food hygiene and food standards inspections in England, Wales, and Scotland.
It includes
Slade Gorton & Co. Inc., is recalling lot 3896 of Wellsley Farms Farm-Raised Atlantic Salmon because it is contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
The recalled product was sold only in BJ&
CS Beef Packers LLC, of Kuna, ID, is recalling 22,912 pounds of raw ground beef that may be contaminated with E. coli O145, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’
The FDA has launched a review of the food preservative BHA, which was first approved by the agency in 1961.
As part of the review of butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), the
Two children have died in a suspected food poisoning incident in a South African province.
The Eastern Cape Department of Health said four other children who were admitted to a
