Chemical Control

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After an online video surfaced showing the illegal use of formaldehyde to preserve cabbage by a wholesaler, Chinese authorities launched an investigation, confirmed the practice, and ordered nationwide inspections of fresh produce.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is recognized as a crucial threat to global public health. Antimicrobial use in animal agriculture can contribute to the emergence and spread of increasingly drug-resistant foodborne pathogens, impacting human medicine.

Importantly, the proposal would not establish a premarket review and approval process for GRAS substances. Companies could still independently conclude that a substance is GRAS and market it while FDA evaluates the notice.

Following the global infant formula recall linked to cereulide contamination, Elena Medo discusses vulnerabilities in infant formula supply chains, infant-specific food safety risks, surveillance gaps, donor milk safety, and the lessons regulators and manufacturers can take away from this unprecedented event.

The European Food Safety Authority published an updated scientific opinion on emerging and novel brominated flame retardants in food. Insufficient data prevented full risk assessments for most of the 27 chemicals evaluated.

The review also identifies six health effect categories for further evaluation as part of efforts to support the development of health-based values for the “forever chemicals.”

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) lowered the acceptable daily intake for trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) to a quarter of the previously established level, and also set an acute reference dose for the chemical for the first time. 

This episode of Food Safety Five highlights new research on cold storage practices for fresh-cut produce, food safety perspectives among small-scale produce growers exempt from FDA's FSMA Produce Safety Rule, and water management strategies that reduce arsenic in rice.

The Memorandum of Understanding expands interagency collaboration on food contaminant monitoring, including for toxic heavy metals and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), under the National Residue Program.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to exposure scientist and toxicologist Dr. Alex LeBeau about the generation, interpretation, and responsible communication of food contaminant testing data—a conversation raised by recent reports on arsenic in candy from Florida officials.