The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) recently published recommendations from the latest National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection (NACMPI) meeting about ways in which FSIS can enhance engagement with underserved communities to promote equity while strengthening the food supply chain and ensuring compliance with food safety regulations.

On August 24, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) signed a Regulatory Partnership Arrangement (RPA) with Ecuador’s Vice Ministry of Aquaculture and Fisheries (VMAF) to strengthen the food safety of Ecuadorian shrimp intended for sale in the U.S. market.

The Interagency Food Safety Analytics Collaboration (IFSAC) has published its list of priorities for 2024–2028, which includes improving foodborne illness source attribution estimates for Campylobacter, making non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) a pathogen of focus, and other activities.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a proposed rule to revise the standard of identity and the standard of fill of container for canned tuna. If finalized, the proposed rule would, among other things, revise the weighing methods used to determine the standard fill of container, allow the use of safe and suitable flavorings and spices as optional ingredients, and clarify that the use of a packing medium is optional.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the selection of James (Jim) Jones, M.S. to serve as the first Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods, who will lead the charge in setting and advancing priorities for a proposed unified Human Foods Program (HFP).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the first dataset collected under the fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5), which is intended to provide new information that will improve EPA’s understanding of the frequency that 29 per- and polyfluoralkyl substances (PFAS) and lithium are found in U.S. drinking water systems, and at what levels.

A recent survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (USDA’s ERS) has revealed the Mexican horticultural sector’s response to and challenges with the requirements of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FDA’s FSMA) since its implementation in 2011.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published a new Voluntary Qualified Importer Program (VQIP) resource to help importers understand eligibility criteria and answer questions prior to submitting an application, as well as to outline the steps for foreign supplier audits under the Accredited Third-Party Certification Program (TPP).

Based on the results of a recent Clostridium perfringens Market Basket Study, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) has concluded that the guidance currently being used for the cooling of large-mass, non-intact ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry products is adequate and does not merit revision.

In 2012, the Consumer Goods Forum’s Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) began the development of a standardized process for assessing and managing food fraud incidents, which has since been adopted across the food industry.