The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has reissued two temporary guidances originally published during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) for certain regulatory requirements that involve onsite visits abroad under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).  

Now available is the 120 Day Food and Agriculture Interim Risk Review, which provides a review of critical and emergent risks to the U.S. food and agriculture sector, and will help inform the Federal Risk Mitigation Strategy, as outlined in the National Security Memorandum-16 (NSM-16).

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA’s APHIS) has announced 12 awards totaling more than $3.2 million in cooperative agreement funding to create antimicrobial resistance (AMR) dashboards. AMR is a crucial threat to food safety and global public health that is aggravated by the use of antimicrobials in food animal agriculture.

The Dutch government has partnered with the cultivated meat industry to develop a code of practice for the facilitation of taste tests for cell-cultured meat and seafood products prior to receiving market approval.

Following a May 2023 announcement of a new framework for systematic post-market reassessment for chemicals used in foods, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released a public inventory of certain food ingredients and additives determined to have unsafe uses in food because they are unapproved, as well as lists of select chemicals currently under the agency’s review. FDA also shared insights about the agency’s work to enhance the assessment of ingredients in foods on the market.

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) hopes to secure further legal powers for the National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) in England and Wales, which will enable the agency to more effectively investigate food crime with autonomy by granting powers of entry and search. A public consultation is now available.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA’s FSIS) has updated its sampling program for cell-cultured meat and poultry products, providing new instructions to inspection personnel and enforcement officers.

In 2022, two-thirds of business in England and nine of ten businesses in Northern Ireland and Wales had their food hygiene ratings on visible display, according to an audit by the UK Food Safety Authority (FSA).

The UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office recently released a guidance on the standards and regulatory requirements that businesses need to meet in order to import and sell goods, including foodstuffs, in the UK.

Based on an assessment of the impact of glyphosate on the health of humans, animals, and the environment, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has determined that there do not exist any critical areas of concern.