The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently released the Fall 2014 Unified Agenda of Regulatory Actions for federal agencies, which outlines the rulemaking actions under development in federal agencies. According to the agenda, developing and issuing final rules for the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) remains a high priority, but action on Nutrition Facts panel and certain other labeling issues likely will fall to 2016.

Hogan Lovells US LLP, IDFA’s outside legal counsel, has prepared a memorandum for members that summarizes actions planned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and other agencies that may be of interest to the food industry.

FSMA

Regarding FSMA, FDA plans to focus on developing and issuing the final rules for Preventive Controls for Human Food and Animal Food, followed by produce safety, foreign supplier verification programs and accreditation of third-party auditors.

Food Labeling and Nutrition

For food labeling and nutrition, FDA will focus on proposed rules for gluten-free labeling of fermented, hydrolyzed and distilled foods, as well as pet food labeling. The final rules on updates for the Nutrition Facts and Dietary Supplements Facts panels, serving sizes of foods that can be reasonably consumed during one eating occasion, dual-column labeling and modifying the Reference Amounts Customarily Consumed (RACCs) have been moved to “long-term action.” That means they likely will be published sometime in 2016.

Members may login to read the Hogan Lovells memo and comprehensive chart of activities with timelines.

For more information, contact Cary Frye, IDFA vice president of regulatory and scientific affairs, at cfrye@idfa.org.