Baking & Snack - July 2004 - 13

FDA finalizes food seizure ruling
The Food and Drug Administration finalized its rule establishing
regulatory procedures for detaining food suspected of bioterror or
other contamination last month. The interim final rule covering the
agency's procedures for so-called administrative detention of food
mirrored its initial proposal issued last year. With credible evidence,
FDA now can detain for 30 days any food it
suspects may present a threat of serious adverse
consequences or death to humans or animals.
"Identifying and removing contaminated
food from the food supply is an essential part of
responding to terrorist acts," said Lester Crawford, DVM, PhD, FDA's acting commissioner. "This rule describes
how FDA can hold food in place while it initiates legal action in court
to seize it and permanently remove it from commerce.
"Alternately, our experts can determine that the food is safe, and
the detention order may be terminated. Either way, consumers are

protected," he said.
Previously, FDA took a backseat to the individual states in seizing any food suspected of contamination. The new rule essentially makes FDA the lead regulatory body in charge of US food
contamination matters. "These regulations lend an additional
layer of protection to our defenses against bioterrorism," said Secretary of Health and Human Services
Tommy G. Thompson.
With the new rule, an FDA district director or
higher-ranking agency official must approve any
detention order, violation of which is a prohibited
act. FDA now has issued three of four final rules for regulations mandated by the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness
and Response Act of 2002. The agency said it plans "shortly" to issue
the last rule, covering record-keeping requirements for the nation's
food processors and suppliers.

USDA withdraws organic directive
content but may release proposed low-carb
rules by the end of the year, according to Eric
F. Greenberg, principal attorney for Eric F.
Greenberg, PC, Chicago, IL. Until then, FDA
appears to be "punting" by not making any
rulings on all the net carb claims, according
to Mr. Greenberg. Currently, food companies are left to make their own calculation on
carbohydrate content. Most determine the
net carbohydrate content of their products,
by subtracting sugar alcohols and nondigestible fibers.
Debate continues on how long low-carb
will remain a hot topic. Products designed
for the low-carb market have seen exponential growth, just as oat bran items did
in the late 1980s, according to Lynn Dornblaser, director of GNPD Consulting Services, Chicago, IL. Oat bran product sales
fell off in the 1990s. The same fate could hit
low-carb sales in the 2000s. Ms. Dornblaser
predicted new products that promote good
health but keep "carb" out of the title will
stay around longer. She gave Doritos Edge,
which has 6 g of net carbohydrates per
serving, as an example.
The surge in the low-carb trend has
AACC thinking about conducting a similar
convention in the future, according to Dan
Best, (pictured) marketing director for Pizzey's Milling and one of the organizers of
this conference.
- Jeff Gelski

US Department of Agriculture Secretary
Ann M. Veneman rescinded a month-old
directive that critics said would have weakened qualification standards for organic
food. The directive would have revamped
guidelines to allow "organic" labels for food
produced with the limited use of pesticides
and antibiotics on some crops, livestock and
dairy products.
Consumer groups and organic
farmers had criticized the directive for potentially opening the door to a number
of additional products
that could use the term
"organic" on their labels.
Specifically, makers of pet
food, personal care products,
fertilizers and even marketers
of aquatic animals may have qualified for
"organic" labels with the proposed changes
to the National Organic Program (NOP),
which oversees standards concerning organic food that USDA first began applying
two years ago.
The directive also would have allowed
livestock fed with certain synthetic feed
supplements to qualify as "organic," and
livestock treated with antibiotics also would
have qualified as long as they had not received drugs in the previous 12 months.
In rescinding the directive, Ms. Veneman

said USDA's Agriculture Marketing Service,
which operates the NOP, would instead
work with industry representatives to clarify
national organic standards. "There has been
a tremendous amount of interest in this and
concern about what it does," Ms. Veneman
said. "I think it's important to recognize they
were acting in good faith trying to clarify
some of the issues coming out of the
actual implementation of this.
"But because there is so
much concern about it, I
have directed the AMS to
withdraw the Statement of
Clarification and now work
with the NOP board and the
industry to determine the best
solutions to the issues raised."
The Organic Trade Association,
a leading opponent of the April directive,
praised Ms. Veneman's decision. "Allowing NOP to create and implement new
directives at will without open dialogue
with stakeholders was creating confusion
for businesses and consumers alike," said
Katherine DiMatteo, the association's
executive director. "By rescinding the (directive) ... Secretary Veneman has taken a
gigantic step toward re-establishing the
public-private trust that went into developing US national organic standards in the
first place."

July 2004 / BAKING & SNACK / 13

Baking & Snack - July 2004

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