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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently updated their respective COVID-19 questions and answers guidance. FDA updated its food safety questions and answers guidance on COVID-19 with additional information related to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) updated recommendations regarding the use of cloth face coverings.…

In response to two petitions, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced that intends to conduct rulemaking to change its policy toward “Product of USA” claims for meat and poultry products, with an apparent objective of limiting the scope of products eligible for the claim.

Recently, FSIS announced…

On March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act,” or the CARES Act.  This is the third phase of federal legislation in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The estimated $2 trillion package cuts across nearly every segment of the economy, widely affecting companies and consumers alike, and…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has released Draft Instructions on Testing Methods (Draft Instructions) for use in compliance with the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (NBFDS). The document provides guidance on the selection of a test method that may be used to ascertain that a highly refined food or ingredient…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued an updated Labeling Guideline on Statements That Bioengineered or Genetically-Modified Ingredients or Animal Feed Were Not Used in Meat, Poultry, Or Egg Products (Guideline). The updated Guideline clarifies that FSIS will approve negative claims verified under a third-party certifying organization…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued a revised compliance guideline for substantiating animal raising claims on labels for meat and poultry products. This updated guideline expands and, in some cases, modifies FSIS’s written policies on animal raising claims made on meat and poultry products. The guideline addresses…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is seeking public comment on draft instructions to validate a refining process under the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard (NBFDS). Validated refining processes can be used to demonstrate a food does not contain detectable modified genetic material and therefore does not require a disclosure under…

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently released the Fall 2019 Unified Agenda of Regulatory Actions, which outlines the rulemaking actions currently under development in each federal agency. This memorandum summarizes the major actions that may be of particular interest to the food industry that are being planned by the U.S. Food and Drug…

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in consultation with the Department of Agriculture, announced the members of the Task Force for Reviewing the Connectivity and Technology Needs of Precision Agriculture in the United States (Task Force). The Task Force, an advisory body to the FCC, will investigate the current state of broadband access in agricultural lands…

On October 31, 2019, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published an interim final rule (IFR) on domestic hemp production. This rule establishes a regulatory framework for USDA oversight of domestic hemp production in accordance with the 2018 Farm Bill.  While many questions remain about how the federal government, including the U.S. Food and…