With California Assembly Bill 899 recently being signed into law, any baby food products sold or made in the state will require testing for arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury, beginning January 1, 2024. Consumer disclosures will be required a year after.

After finding that more than a third of water courses in England and Wales contain medium- to high-risk levels of per- and polyflouralkyl substances (PFAS), the Royal Society of Chemistry is calling upon the UK Government to enact stricter drinking water standards for the “forever chemicals.”

In an October 19 invite-only media roundtable and written statement, James (Jim) Jones, the first Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), revealed his priorities for forging a new, unified Human Foods Program. Significantly, amid the wave of state legislators aiming to ban possibly harmful food additives, Jones stated his intent to more closely address the issue, beginning with brominated vegetable oil. 

A recent assessment conducted by the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) and funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (­FDA) has provided a better understanding of NEHA-FDA Retail Flexible Funding Model Grant Program (RFFM) distribution based on social needs. RFFM provides funding to state, local, tribal, and territorial retail food regulatory agencies as they achieve and advance conformance with FDA’s Retail Program Standards.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) has published its annual plan for fiscal year (FY) 2024, which acts as a guide for the agency’s efforts to prevent foodborne illnesses associated with FSIS-regulated products, transform inspections, and achieve operational excellence. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) has released a notice informing agency inspection program personnel about the continuation of and changes to the Raw Pork Products Sampling Program.

The vast majority of food on the market in Canada meets standards for chemical residues, according to a Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) report summarizing sampling activities conducted in 2020–2021.

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) is advising consumers to limit their consumption of Cannabidiol (CBD) from foods to 10 milligrams (mg) per day for healthy adults, which is significantly reduced from FSA’s previous opinion that 70 mg of CBD per day is safe.

Whether or not a country’s food businesses have largely achieved certification against food safety standards is the second most important predictor of instances of foodborne illness, according to a recent study.

In November, Penn State University Extension will offer webinar course to help produce growers meet the food safety requirements outlined in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).