On Feb. 28 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 Feb. 28 that lists the status of recalls and field corrections for food, drugs, biologics and devices. The report covers both domestic and foreign firms.

The Food and Drug Administration is amending its regulations on food additives permitted in feed and drinking water of animals to allow the use of silicon dioxide as a carrier for flavors for use in animal feed, FDA said. The final rule takes effect March 2.

A new Food and Drug Administration guidance document lists appropriate serving sizes for various types of food for compliance with nutrition facts labeling requirements. The March 1 guidance includes a list of product categories, serving sizes for those categories and formatting for serving size statements, along with a list for each category of examples of products that fall within. “To comply with the [nutrition facts serving size labeling] requirements ... food manufacturers should determine the food category into which specific products belong and label the food products with the appropriate label serving size based on the reference amount of the product customarily consumed,” FDA said.

The Food and Drug Administration intends to allow modified “added sugars” claims on nutrition facts labels for cranberry juice, pure honey and maple syrup, it said in a draft guidance document issued March 1. Labelers of such products may include a symbol after the amount of added sugars in their products referring to a clarifying footnote, FDA said. 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. FDA set the new “added sugars” requirement in a May 2016 final rule, among other changes for nutrition facts labels (see 1605200021). FDA recently proposed to extend the first compliance dates for the new labels until 2020 (see 1709290014).

The Food and Drug Administration on March 1 issued a final guidance document on the “Proper Labeling of Honey and Honey Products.” The guidance includes a series of questions and answers on honey labeling, focusing in particular on labeling of products consisting of honey with added corn syrup or cane sugar, flavored honey and blends of honey with other ingredients. It says honey with added cane sugar or corn syrup cannot be labeled as “honey” and must be identified as a blend. It also says the source of honey does not have to be declared on labels, but the name of the plant or blossom may be identified if there is supporting information that the plant or blossom is the chief floral source of the honey. “Names such as ‘Orange Blossom Honey,’ ‘Clover Honey,’ or ‘Wild Flower Honey’ are acceptable,” FDA said.

On Feb. 26 the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:

On Feb. 22 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 on Feb. 23 posted an update on its 2017-18 microbiological sampling program on processed avocados and guacamole and fresh herbs, including cilantro, basil and parsley. FDA announced the program in August, intending to collect 1,600 samples of each product. As of Jan. 1, FDA had collected 4.6% of its intended total of domestic samples of fresh herbs and 12.4% of its eventual number of import samples. None of the domestic samples had bacterial contamination, but FDA said four import samples of fresh herbs tested positive for salmonella and E. coli. For processed avocados and guacamole, on the other hand, three domestic samples tested positive for Listeria, while only one did from the import samples, with EPA having tested 6% to 7% of its eventual total samples for each. “It is important to note that no conclusions about overall contamination rates can be made until all of the data are collected, validated and analyzed,” FDA said. “The assignments are anticipated to last 18 months. The agency will post results on a quarterly basis and also post a comprehensive report once sampling and analysis is complete,” it said.

On Feb. 21 the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of: