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.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a request for information on a citizen petition asking FDA to amend the standard of identity for pasteurized orange juice by lowering the minimum Brix level from 10.5 percent to 10 percent.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Consumer Reports, Stop Foodborne Illness, and other food safety advocates have announced their support of a proposal by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) to declare Salmonella an adulterant in breaded, stuffed, not-ready-to-eat (NRTE) chicken products.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) recently posted its fiscal year (FY) 2024 Public Health Regulations (PHR) report. The FY 2024 PHRs and their thresholds will go into effect October 2023.

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has issued a new voluntary guidance for industry on glycerol in slush-ice drinks, advising that they should not be sold to children four years of age and under.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a direct final rule finalizing the agency’s prior determination that the use of partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) in foods is no longer Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS).

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we are joined by an FDA official, a county-level environmental health regulator, and a retail food industry association representative to discuss the research and application of behavioral science with food employees and regulatory agencies to reduce foodborne illness risk factors at smaller retail foodservice businesses. 

Salmonella spp. have long been associated with low-moisture foods such as nuts and nut-derived products, with varying prevalence observed in tree nuts, including cashews, at retail. Virtually all cashews are imported to the U.S. Some nuts, including cashews, are imported as a "raw" product (i.e., one that has not been subjected to a process to adequately reduce pathogens, such as a kill step). Salmonella contamination of such products has resulted in several notable outbreaks in the U.S. in the past ten years, including those in which cashew-containing products have been implicated as a vehicle. This article presents a brief overview of outbreak investigations of Salmonella infections linked to the consumption of cashews and cashew-containing food products. It also presents challenges encountered, lessons learned, and relevant regulatory requirements for importers and manufacturers of cashews and cashew-containing products.