FDA

A roundup of some noteworthy stories from the last few days.

With sales of cow milk flat or falling and those of plant-based "milk" soaring, a bipartisan group of 34 House member sent a letter to the FDA, urging it to "more aggressively police the improper use of dairy terms, which are used on the labels of many products that have no real dairy ingredients," reports Feedstuffs.

"Sweety con Nutella" is the name that McDonald's gave the new dessert sold at outlets in Italy — "essentially a Nutella 'burger,'" says news site Brand Eating. Sold in a clam-shell box that mimics a hamburger container, "it's two halves of a bun sandwiching a layer of Nutella hazelnut spread."

The FDA found trace amounts of glyphosate, the most widely used weedkiller in the world, "in a variety of oat products, including plain and flavored oat cereals for babies," says a blog post by Carey Gillam of U.S. Right to Know. It appeared a day after European officials said they would release data from their assessment that glyphosate is "unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans" and two days after a Monsanto-commissioned study said the herbicide was not a threat.

With few national guidelines, pet food is a Wild West of food safety, says Modern Farmer. Pet food is technically overseen by the FDA, but due to limited resources the agency has handed over that responsibility to the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), which has no regulatory control and can only ask companies to adhere to voluntary guidelines.

Fourteen months ago, the Obama administration launched the first comprehensive review in 30 years of the roles of the USDA, the EPA and the FDA in regulating biotechnology. In a follow-up, the White House released a proposed update to the Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology — the division of labor among regulators, first issued in 1986 — and a national strategy for modernizing biotechnology regulations.

In a speech to the New York Economic Club, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said, "I will eliminate all needless and job-killing regulations" in federal government. A fact sheet distributed by the campaign listed "specific regulations to be eliminated," including the "FDA Food Police," reported The Hill newspaper.

Founded four years ago as the first lobbying group for the food movement, Food Policy Action said it will work to defeat second-term Rep. David Valadao, a California republican and member of the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing USDA and FDA funding.

Due to voter distaste for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Democratic strategists say their party may have chances to win in up to a dozen GOP-held seats in the House, including the district held by Kevin Yoder, reports the New York Times. Yoder, a fiscal conservative who represents the suburbs of Kansas City, is a member of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for FDA and USDA.

As a handful of companies scale up their operations in anticipation of bringing plant-based meat and other bioengineered foods to market, the question looms of how to fit these 21st-century products into a 20th-century regulatory framework, says Science.

Even though the deadline for large facilities to comply with the FDA's rigorous new "preventive controls rule for human food" is Sept. 16, the need for additional training means the agency's inspectors likely won't start enforcing it until January, according to Food Safety News.

Vegan startup Hampton Creek paid its employees to go into supermarkets and purchase its own eggless Just Mayo, making the product appear more popular than it actually was, before a round of venture funding in 2014, Bloomberg reports.

A report written by a non-profit research center aligned with the organic industry said, “The best choice that consumers can make to combat antibiotic resistance and protect themselves from antibiotic-resistant bacteria is to choose organic.”

Food industry giant Cargill “has created a sugarlike product that seems perfect,” said the Minneapolis Star Tribune. But while it tastes like sugar and has no calories, it comes from the lab, so “Cargill faces an enormous marketing challenge with its breakthrough ingredient.”

One of the top-ranking Democrats in the Senate, Chuck Schumer of New York, called on the FDA to overhaul its food recall process, saying dangerous food now may remain on sale for months before the agency acts.

A new FDA regulation, issued as part of implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, says farms and farm-operated businesses that sell directly to customers are exempt from regulation as food facilities, a category aimed at processing plants. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition said the regulation would prevent undue regulation of small farms.

Insects have long been a source of protein in China, Japan, Mexico and tropical regions, but in the U.S. eating bugs has been easy to dismiss as little more than a fad. Not anymore. Over the last five years the edible-insect business has surged, and is now big enough that it has it’s own lobbying firm, reports Quartz.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will head the Department of Health and Human Services in the new administration, said President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday. “For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to public health,” said Trump in announcing the nomination.