- As our readership is well aware, under current law, establishments regulated by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) are required to declare all ingredients, including allergens, on their products’ labels. If FSIS determines that a product under its jurisdiction contains undeclared allergens, the Agency requests the establishment to recall the product. FSIS recently reported that since 2008, the Agency has seen “a notable increase” in the number of recalls due to undeclared allergens in regulated products.
- To address the continued occurrence of product recalls due to undeclared allergens and best practices for preventing the presence of undeclared allergens in FSIS-regulated products, FSIS has announced a public meeting to be held on March 16, 2017. The meeting will include participation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), international partners, and academic institutions. In addition to holding this public meeting, FSIS has published a compliance guideline to assist regulated establishments in addressing the hazards posed by allergens in their products.
- The upcoming March 16, 2017 meeting is scheduled to be held at USDA’s Jefferson Auditorium in the South Building at 14th & Independence Ave. SW in Washington D.C., from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. For additional information on this meeting, please see the Federal Register Notice here.