White House issues Spring 2015 Regulatory Plan.

  • Each year, federal agencies publish agendas of the regulatory and deregulatory activities that they plan to undertake.  The White House publishes these agendas in the form of a “Unified Agenda and Regulatory Plan,” which enables stakeholders to review planned agency actions for the coming year.
  • On May 21, 2015, the White House issued its 2015 Spring Agenda.  As anticipated, FDA’s docket includes finalization of the major rules to implement the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).  The agenda also includes a proposed rule to implement user fees for FDA’s third-party accreditation program for food and feed (anticipated May 2015); a proposed rule to update standards for the labeling of pet food (anticipated September 2015); a final rule to implement revisions to the nutrition and supplement facts labels (anticipated March 2016); and a final rule to implement revisions to serving size requirements (anticipated March 2016).  The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) docket includes a proposed rule regarding the use of the voluntary claim, “natural” on the labeling of meat and poultry products (anticipated December 2015) and a proposed rule to revise reference amounts customarily consumed and the nutrition facts panels for meat and poultry products (anticipated December 2015).
  • Of course, it remains to be seen which rules actually will be published in accordance with the time frames specified in the agendas.  Nevertheless, the Regulatory Plan is a good resource to indicate the regulatory (and deregulatory) priorities of various agencies of relevance to the food and agricultural sectors.