FDA Hopes To Set 'Standards' For Grocery Store Recalls

The FDA asks stakeholders and consumers for imput as it writes a rule for a little-known requirement of the Food Safety Modernization Act.

The Food & Drug Administration is asking for information that will assist in requiring grocery store chains to post food recall notices in easy to see and notice locations. Earlier this week the FDA released some questions for stakeholders and consumers as it writes a rule for a little-known requirement of the Food Safety Modernization Act.

The FDA can require a responsible party to submit “consumer-friendly” information about a food that is being recalled under the Reportable Food Registry. In turn, the FDA is required to create one-page summaries and post them on its website to alert consumers of a food or feed item that, if consumed, could cause serious injury or death.

Grocery stores with 15 or more physical locations that sold the recalled food must display the FDA’s one-page summary within 24 hours in a conspicuous location and for 14 days.

Surprisingly, fresh fruits and vegetables, dietary supplements and infant formula are all exempt from the requirement, butmost foods are not and the provision may affect how other recall postings are handled.

“There may be potential public health impacts if consumer notifications for reportable foods do not include information on dietary supplements, infant formula, and fruits and vegetables that are raw agricultural commodities, particularly if the public believes that such consumer notifications are meant to encompass all food products regulated by FDA,” the agency said in its initial ruling.

Comments on the proposal are due June 9.

To read more from the FDA, click HERE.

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