New FDA Rules Coming This Summer

The FDA announced last Thursday that the first two new food safety rules under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Food Safety Modernization Act will go into effect on July 3.

The first rule will give the FDA more authority to assess the risk of suspect food products. The FDA will be able to keep food from the marketplace for 30 days if it believes the food is possibly adulterated or mislabeled. The FDA will use those 30 days to decide if federal enforcement action is needed. The aim if to prevent potentially harmful food from reaching consumers.

A second rule adds a reporting mandate for food importers. Anyone importing food or animal food must now alert the FDA  “if any country has refused entry to the same product,” the FDA said.