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EDITORIAL COMMENT: Toddler ‘Milks’ Appear To Be Hurting Sales Of Real Milk

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COMPANY PROFILE: Alemar Cheese Moves To Minneapolis; Sister Company Grows In California

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by Jim Cisler

As FSMA Takes Full Effect, Partnership Opportunities Abound To Improve Food Safety Practices by Larry Bell and Jim Mueller

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FDA Reopens Comment Period On Principles For Modernizing Standards

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week announced that it is reopening the comment period on a proposed rule to establish a set of general principles for food standards for FDA to use when considering whether to establish, revise, or eliminate a food standard.

Comments may be submitted by Tuesday, Apr. 21, at www.regulations.gov; the docket number is FDA-1995-N-0062.

In May of 2005, FDA and USDA jointly issued a proposed rule, entitled “Food Standards; General Principles and Food Standards Modernization,” as a first step in instituting a process to modernize FDA definitions and standards of identity (and standards of quality and fill of container), and USDA’s definitions and standards of identity or composition under the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry Products Inspection Act.

The proposed rule, if finalized, would establish general principles that FDA and USDA would consider when determining whether to establish, revise, or eliminate a food standard.

Although the general principles were mostly consistent between FDA and USDA, a few principles were not identical. Because FDA and USDA regulate different products under different statutory authorities, some principles were developed to reflect specific FDA or USDA regulatory needs and perspectives.

FDA and USDA stated back in 2005 that adherence to principles identified in the proposed rule would result in standards that would: better promote honesty and fair dealing in the interest of consumers and protect the public; allow for technological advances in food production; be consistent with international food standards to the extent feasible; and be clear and easy to use for both manufacturers and the agencies that enforce compliance with the standards.

Interested persons were originally given until Aug. 18, 2005, to comment on the proposed general principles and to provide additional information as described in a request for comments section of the proposed rule. While comments received were generally supportive, FDA and USDA said they did not finalize the proposed rule due to resource constraints and competing priorities.

In the 2005 proposed rule, FDA proposed a set of 13 general principles the agency would consider when establishing, revising, or eliminating a food standard. The first four general principles stated the purpose or function of a food standard and were the most fundamental principles addressing consumer economic protection. Therefore, if a food standard is inconsistent with any one of ...

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