The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Fred Upton (R-MI), and the chairman of the Health Subcommittee, Joseph Pitts (R-PA), yesterday sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration regarding the agency’s ability to protect trade secrets and confidential business information. They expressed concern about the growing threat of cybersecurity breaches and informed FDA that they will be “examining the adequacy of FDA’s procedures to protect the trade secrets and confidential commercial information of regulated entities in the food industry.”
IDFA and other food industry associations met earlier this year with the House Energy and Commerce Committee staff to discuss concern about how FDA would safeguard the expanded information they can collect under the Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA). The letter reiterated the importance of protecting confidential information and requested detailed information on the procedures FDA has in place to ensure the safety of proprietary information.
IDFA will continue to support this issue and provide updates to members.
For more information, contact Ruth Saunders, IDFA vice president of policy and legislative affairs, at rsaunders@idfa.org, or Emily Lyons, IDFA director of regulatory affairs and counsel, at elyons@idfa.org.