Recent changes to the Food and Drug Administration’s ACE supplemental guide will not take effect until further notice, an FDA official said April 26 on CBP’s biweekly conference call on ACE. The only exception is the addition of a new affirmation of compliance (AoC) “VQI” for CBP’s voluntary qualified importer program for food importers, which should happen in October, the official said. In the meantime, filers and software vendors should start phasing out anything removed in the latest version of the supplemental guide, “but there’s no planned date at this time to make any changes,” the official said. CBP released version 2.6.1 of the guide on April 24 (see 1804240034).

On April 25 the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:​

On April 24 the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:

On April 23 the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:​

The Food and Drug Administration is extending until June 15 the period for comments on a draft guidance document announcing FDA's intent to allow modified “added sugars” claims on nutrition facts labels for cranberry juice, pure honey and maple syrup, it said. According to the March 1 draft guidance document (see 1803010014), labelers of such products would be able to include a symbol after the amount of added sugars in their products referring to a clarifying footnote. For example, for cranberry juice, the footnote may say that the sugars are added to “improve the palatability of naturally tart cranberries” and do not bring the overall levels of sugar above those in similar juice products. For honey, the footnote can say that “all these sugars are naturally occurring in honey” to clarify there is no corn syrup or cane sugar added, FDA said. The “enforcement discretion” policy comes in response to industry concerns that non-endogenous sweeteners are being used in honey and maple syrup and that consumers of cranberry juice may see it as less healthy than other juices.

On April 20 the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:

The Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health still has some requirements for radiation-emitting halogen and incandescent lamps and bulbs, even though these products are not subject to an FDA performance standard, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in an emailed update sent April 23. Currently, only mercury vapor and metal halide lamps with an outer glass envelope are covered by a performance standard due to the risk of radiation if the glass envelope is broken, the NCBFAA said. But even though they are not covered, radiation-emitting halogen and incandescent lamps must still comply with FDA regulations on reporting accidental radiation, notification of defects and repurchases, repairs or replacement, the trade group said. However, “CDRH would be ok if these lamps are disclaimed during import entry since the technology surrounding these products is an old and proven technology,” the NCBFAA said.

On April 19 the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:

On April 18 the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:​

The Food and Drug Administration issued its weekly Enforcement Report for April 18 that lists the status of recalls and field corrections for food, drugs, biologics and devices. The report covers both domestic and foreign firms.