Four months wasn’t long enough for some in the food industry to figure out how they want the FDA to define “healthy” for use on food labels, so the agency has extended the comment deadline on the topic for another three months.
The Food and Drug Administration’s deadline for public comments on the topic is…
The National Organic Standards Board has voted 10-3, with one abstention, to remove carrageenan from the list of substances approved for use in food items labeled “USDA Organic.” The vote came Thursday afternoon during the board’s three-day fall meeting in St. Louis.
NOSB members were tentatively scheduled to make a decision Friday on whether to …
Editor’s note: This is the third piece in a four-part series. The final installment is scheduled to publish Oct. 3. One step forward and one step back might be sufficient in the context of a boot scootin’ line dance, but in the context of foodborne illness outbreaks and increasingly long, complex supply chains, consumers and…
The Senate compromise bill for labeling food with genetically modified ingredients is on its way to President Obama’s desk after gaining a solid 306-117 bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives early this afternoon. 
Passage of S. 764 came with 101 Democrats joining 205 Republicans in a vote that pre-empts any state labeling of food…
While the Food Safety Modernization Act doesn’t require transparency, it encourages it, but equally important for food manufacturers, consumers are increasingly demanding traceability. “Companies are under pressure from consumers, as trust is the lowest it’s ever been,” said John Keogh, president and principal advisor, Shantalla Inc., Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. “Trust can be lost…
A recent survey of 5,000 consumers nationwide that asked about food buying decisions showed changing attitudes about food safety. People still want toxin-free and pathogen-free food, but they also want more transparency from food producers and retailers about those and other food safety issues, according to the 2015 Food Value Equation Survey by Deloitte Consulting…
Activists and industry reps sat down twice with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to see if they could find a compromise about labeling food processed with genetic engineering. No compromise could be found, and it’s unlikely there will be a third meeting. That the negotiations broke down hardly came as a surprise. The two sides…
Only two more Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) rules remain to be finalized. Final rules for Sanitary Transportation and Intentional Adulteration are due out next spring. But with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) release last week of final FSMA rules on Produce Safety, Foreign Supplier Verification, and Accredited Third Party Verification, long-sought reform…
The processed food industry has evolved over the past several decades to keep pace with food safety advances, including the development of HACCP and, more recently, the implementation of GFSI-benchmarked food safety management programs. The implementation of FSMA is yet another revolutionary change that will have tremendous impact on the industry. Why? Because the food…
A federal trial court judge’s April 27 decision allowing the state of Vermont to proceed with new rules requiring labels for genetically modified food is being appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston. The appeal was announced May 6 in a joint statement from the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA),…
The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) is taking steps to make food additives more transparent. 
The trade organization, representing more than 300 food, beverage and consumer product companies, says their five-part initiative, announced Wednesday, will modernize the process for making “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS) determinations. The category has been controversial because it allows companies…
