FDA announces two new safety rules

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By Correy Stephenson
Dolan Media

The Food and Drug Administration has released two new regulations pursuant to the Food Safety Modernization Act, which increased the agency‘s authority to recall unsafe foods.

The Act also requires food producers to give FDA officials access to records in the event of a food-borne illness outbreak, and endows the agency with the power to suspend the registration of a food facility for causing serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals. President Barack Obama signed the measure into law in January.

The two new rules announced by the agency are the first issued under the new powers it was granted under the Act.

The first rule allows the FDA to “administratively detain” for up to 30 days food the agency believes has been produced under unsanitary or unsafe conditions. The second rule mandates entities importing food into the United States to inform the FDA if any other country has refused entry for the same product (including food for animals).

Prior to the Act, the agency could only detain food if it had “credible evidence” that a product was contaminated or mislabeled in a way that presented a threat of serious adverse health consequences or death to humans or animals.

The rules will take effect July 3. FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods Mike Taylor said the agency plans to release more rules later this year.