The USDA and FDA announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to help prevent interruptions at FDA-regulated food facilities, including fruit and vegetable processing.
The final rule, The Sustainable, Ecological, Consistent, Uniform, Responsible, Efficient (SECURE) rule, will bring USDA’s plant biotechnology regulations into the 21st century by removing duplicative and antiquated processes in order to facilitate the development and availability of these technologies through a transparent, consistent, science-based, and risk-proportionate regulatory system.
One of the letters directs meat and poultry processing plants that are currently closed and have no clear timetable for resuming operations to submit written documentation of their protocol to USDA.
Blue Bell is accused of distributing ice cream products that were manufactured under unsanitary conditions and contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, a violation of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
Workers at a Smithfield Foods plant Milan, MO, have filed a lawsuit to “secure basic protective equipment and protocol changes that will stop the spread of COVID-19 in the plant and surrounding community.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) have issued new guidance for the meat and poultry industry that advises creating a COVID-19 assessment and control plan.
CDC says the recommendations are steps that Smithfield Foods may want to consider implementing to address the conditions identified at the plant. The recommendations are discretionary and not required or mandated by CDC.
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