What a year!  A lot of water has gone under the regulatory bridge- from the Carbendazim issue with Brazilian OJ to the “pink slime” media fiasco to FSMA and Chinese imports.  Here are our top 10 most popular blog posts from 2012 (most popular first).  Thanks to everyone for sharing, tweeting, liking and reading our content!

• Orange Juice & Fungicide Residues Infographic
• Pink Slime: 11 Facts You Don’t Know About the American Meat Supply
• FDA Cracks Down on Carbendazim in OJ but Ignores it in Other Foods
• Who Tells America What’s Safe To Eat? Pink Slime Story Sheds Light on … READ MORE
  
  Share

Can you slime American twice?  You can try, according to Jim Avila and ABC News.  Attempting to re-create its journalistic success from the “pink slime” story, ABC News recently ran a short segment on foreign shrimp and antibiotics, claiming that, in a recent random sampling, trace levels of 3 banned antibiotics were found in imported shrimp.  The story, reported by ABC’s Jim Avila (who also reported on “Pink Slime” this year), states that the majority of shrimp consumed in the United States “is raised in … READ MORE

Share

FDAImports.com Founder and CEO, Benjamin England, recently spoke at the Food and Drug Law Institute’s Annual Conference on the Food Safety Modernization Act and imports.  During the presentation, “How FSMA Changed the Game on Imports,” Mr. England discussed, along with leading FDA lawyers and industry and FDA officials, elements related to FSMA affecting imported foods and international trade, including the Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP), the Voluntary Qualified Importer Program (VQIP), various challenges to the international supply … READ MORE

Share

Below are some of our favorite quotes and exchanges from last week’s Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing, “Examining the Current State of Cosmetics.”  If you haven’t read our first blog about it please read that here.  What follows below are some of the more interesting quotes and exchanges from Michael Landa’s testimony portion of the hearing (our thoughts in italics):

 “FDA’s current authority is principally post-market…the pre-market authority is limited to color additives… we have the authority to ban ingredients … READ MORE

Share

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced last week that it will not ban BPA, the on-again off-again controversial chemical used in a variety of food packaging applications.  This announcement from FDA is the most recent in a long string of protests, promises, and petitions.  This time, FDA issued a slightly anti-climactic, “it appears safe but we still don’t know.”  When BPA issues were first raised by consumers, FDA initially claimed that they could not regulate it and essentially absolved themselves from ongoing participation in the … READ MORE

Share

Have you heard the term “pink slime” recently?  Chances are you’ve seen it mentioned on TV or Facebook or maybe in discussions with friends. But here’s a question: How much were you talking about pink slime a year ago?  Most likely you had never heard the term “pink slime” a year ago and chances are that you won’t be talking about it a year from now.  This current food safety trend (which isn’t even a food safety story as no one has been harmed by eating it) has exploded in recent weeks. This is due to the … READ MORE

Share

Not since 3rd grade art class have the words “pink slime” been heard so often in everyday conversation.  In mere weeks, thanks in no small part to TV food star Jamie Oliver, it seems like moms, lobbyists, educators, writers and bloggers are all up in arms over “pink slime” and it’s pervasive use in processed ground beef found in –gasp- nearly every grocery store in America.  With that being said, here are 11 facts about pink slime, meat and America in no particular order.

• The … READ MORE
  
  Share