Baking&Snack - October 2012 - 75

TRENDS

FORMULATION

EQUIPMENT

OPERATIONS

SPECIAL REPORT

Regulatory Analysis
by Laurie Gorton

Not much new will happen in food regulations this year — with a few notable exceptions.

Stalled. That’s the fate of most pending federal food regulation efforts. Depending on the outcome of the national election to be held almost a month after this issue goes to press, their fate might even be described as “in limbo.” However, regulatory actions this year did alter school food service program rules, and the choice of some ingredients for organic foods did change. Approval of a food additive petition granted an increase in the permitted level of vitamin D. Formulators will also need to track changes in food safety regulations because they could affect sourcing, tracking and handling of ingredients. It’s not just the feds. California’s Proposition 37 ballot initiative proposes mandatory labeling of GMO content in foods. And Canada’s food safety authority is in the middle of reorganizing its food safety regulation efforts.

Complex legalities …
Where do these rules come from? Administrative law governs the preparation of most food regs. This means that after the legislature (the US Congress) passes a bill relating to processed foods and the

executive (the President) signs it into law, then executive branch agencies write the rules that put the law into effect. In rare cases, Congress pens the regulations into the actual law, as it did with the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act (FALCPA), which went into effect Jan. 1, 2006. Food presents complex regulatory problems, with many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak. For one thing, the agencies writing the rules solicit public comment to make sure all stakeholders get their say. Sometimes, as now, the Administration stipulates that science must be the basis for decisions. These factors combine to slow the rulemaking process to crawl along at a snail’s pace. Those stakeholders are important. Individual citizens and companies as well as consumer groups get their facts and opinions heard, and so do the regulated industries. Strong lobbying by associations carries a lot of weight with the agencies as well as the Administration and Congress.

… and political angles
Congress does get impatient with such delays and occasionally writes

specific deadlines into laws. But even those deadlines can slip. That’s why the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans were actually announced in 2011. That’s also why release of major rules implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), set for this July, have not proceeded beyond fairly minor matters. And sometimes, politics interferes. Administrative law clearly gives rulemaking responsibility to the agencies, not the legislature. But Congress can haul even the most fiercely independent agency into hearings to explain its reasoning and actions. That’s why Presidential election years like 2012 rarely see announcements of major regulatory changes. The feds aren’t the only ones regulating foods. States and cities get into the act, too. Massachusetts, for example, now requires restaurants to display in staff areas a food allergy awareness poster, developed by the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network. The state law also mandates language on menus and menu boards that reads, “Before placing your order, please inform your server if a person in your party has a food allergy.” New York, NY,

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Baking&Snack - October 2012

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