The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced new recommended action levels for lead in certain processed baby foods. The proposed action levels supports the Closer to Zero initiative to continually reduce babies’ and young children’s exposure to toxic heavy metals from food.

In support of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) “Closer to Zero” Action Plan, the agency will be cohosting a two-day virtual workshop on research in risk communication, environmental contaminants in food, and the role of nutrition as they relate to child development. Also cohosting the event is the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

A recent workshop funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has identified several crucial working areas for mitigating the public’s exposure to toxic metals from the U.S. food supply, which is a pressing food safety issue. The workshop was conducted as part of the “Closer to Zero” initiative to address such exposure, in which USDA, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and other federal agencies are involved.

As part of the Closer to Zero Action Plan, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct an independent study to assess young children’s exposure to mercury from consuming seafood.

The IFT FIRST event offered several key takeaways impacting food safety, from topics and issues surrounding supply chain disruption and innovation to data standards and contaminants.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued a draft guidance, Action Levels for Lead in Juice; Draft Guidance for Industry, for which it is now accepting comments.