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

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been using social media for over a year now and has expanded and built-out its channels to include Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr.  Below are some statistics on the agency’s social media channels and engagement in 2011.  (As of 1.5.2012)   For more on the FDA and social media please read our other related blog, “What Does American Think of the FDA?”

 
Facebook Page
18,346 likes

101 posts in 2011

22 Average comments per post in 2011

Most commented … READ MORE

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The FDA, like most other government agencies, has moved past its previous reticence and launched fully into the world of social media.  The FDA now has a Facebook page, multiple Twitter accounts, a YouTube channel and Flickr account, linking to each of them from every page on its voluminous website.  The fact that a government agency would embrace social networking tools created by a horde of tech-savvy 20-somethings from California is stunning in and of itself, but … READ MORE

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The FDA recently unveiled a new makeover for its website, www.fda.gov, and a brand new blog, “FDA Voice,” intended to provide more behind-the-scenes insight and commentary from FDA officials.  The rationale for the new look of the website is described by FDA Commissioner, Margaret Hamburg:
We have given the homepage a cleaner look and feel – by updating the design and reducing the number of links on the page. We have been working hard to improve your experience at FDA.gov, and hope that the changes we have made will help you find the information you need as quickly and easily as … READ MORE

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On September 11th 2011, Cargill recalled an additional 185,000 pounds of ground turkey citing a potential contamination risk of Salmonella Heidelberg.  This recall follows the previous massive recall of 36 million pounds of ground turkey products on August 3rd.  In our blog post discussing the first turkey recall we predicted that Cargill would meticulously invest in research and backtracking to understand how the contamination occurred.  As predicted, Cargill has assembled an outside panel of experts to do this very thing.  After discussing their already implemented food safety procedures Cargill states that, “we believe a panel of independent experts will … READ MORE

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The FDA has recently made public and easily accessible several databases disclosing the results of FDA inspections for companies with compliance issues related to the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and results of criminal investigations and debarment actions along with an easy to use warning letter, untitled letter and cyber letter resource.  Although such information has always been available from FDA, it could only be obtained by a written request under the Freedom of Information Act … READ MORE

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