USDA Proposes Parallel to FDA's Reportable Food Registry

The USDA proposed some new rules this week that would:

"...require official establishments to promptly notify the appropriate District Office that an adulterated or misbranded meat or poultry product has entered commerce; require official establishments to prepare and maintain current procedures for the recall of meat and poultry products produced and shipped by the establishment; and require official establishments to document each reassessment of the establishment's process control plans, that is, its Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point plans."

Sounds like the sort of common-sense stuff most people would assume is already required, right? I mean, you'd think that if "adulterated or misbranded meat" somehow made it onto the market, the company would be required to let regulators know. Alas, not the case.

Anyway, the proposed rules are based on recommendations from President Obama's Food Safety Working Group, and are largely similar to the FDA's Reportable Food Registry, the system that helped identify contamination early in the recent, high-profile case of hydrolyzed vegetable protein made by Basic Food Flavors.

This should go off without a hitch, but just in case, you can submit a comment in support of the proposed rule by visiting the rule's page on Regulations.Gov. There is a "Submit Comment" button at the top of the page.

Submit a Comment Now in Support of Nutrition Labeling for Meat and Poultry

A proposed USDA rule would require nutrition labels on a broad variety of retail meat and poultry products. Simply put, the rule would finally give consumers the information to choose meat and poultry in full knowledge of the calories, fat and so forth that these products contain. Go HERE now and submit a comment in support of this rule, because you can be sure that producers will be fighting this tooth and nail. Why? Because transparency about their products - even just about the number of calories and the amount of saturated fat - scares them. The comment period has been extended from its original deadline of 2/16, so submit your comment now!

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"SUMMARY: The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is issuing this supplemental proposed rule that, if finalized, will amend the Federal meat and poultry products inspection regulations to require nutrition labeling of the major cuts of single-ingredient, raw meat and poultry products, unless an exemption applies."