FOOD & BEVERAGE SECTOR: LABELLING, REGULATION & LIABILITY

CD: In your opinion, what have been the key trends and developments affecting the food & beverage sector in recent months? To what extent has the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis had an impact?

Johnson: When coronavirus (COVID-19) first hit, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food enforcement, including recalls, suddenly dropped off, but with the summer months FDA appears to be more active again and several recalls are taking place. Furthermore, the FDA is working to resume in-person facility inspections. A significant enforcement trend started involving importers as the FDA began actively enforcing the Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP) requirement. For the first time, the FDA placed importers with no publicly known safety issues on an import ban which is called Import Alert 99-41. While on the alert, the FDA will refuse the listed products until the importer persuades the FDA that it has a compliant FSVP regime. Enforcing this ban, the FDA issued the first import refusals for non-compliance with FSVP.

Oct-Dec 2020 issue

Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P.

Join our free mailing list to read the full article