Generic Approval of Product Labels Expanded
The Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has issued a final rule that, effective March 20, will expand the circumstances under which FSIS will generically approve the labels of meat, poultry, and egg products.
To prevent the introduction of adulterated or misbranded products into commerce, FSIS implements a prior approval program for labels intended to be used on federally inspected meat, poultry, and egg products, both imported and domestic. However, FSIS considers certain labels that comply with its labeling rules to be generically approved.
FSIS is now expanding generic approval to (1) products only intended for export that deviate from domestic labeling requirements, (2) “organic” claims that appear in a product label’s ingredients statement, (3) geographic landmarks (e.g., a foreign country’s flag, monument, or map) displayed on a product label, (4) negative claims made on product labels that identify the absence of certain ingredients or types of ingredients, and (5) labels of products that receive voluntary FSIS inspection.
Also effective March 20 FSIS will no longer evaluate generically approved labels that are voluntarily submitted for review. However, FSIS has made available revised guidelines on the types of labels that must be submitted for agency review and is accepting comments on these guidelines through Feb. 17.
Imports of Oranges and Tangerines from Egypt Under Review
The Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is considering a request to authorize the importation for consumption of fresh oranges and tangerines from Egypt. APHIS has drafted a pest risk assessment that lists the potential pests likely to remain on these commodities upon importation if no mitigation is applied. Comments on this assessment, including information that might lead APHIS to revise its assessment before identifying pest mitigations and proceeding with the commodity import approval process, are due by Feb. 12.
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