On March 8 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 March 8 ended a ban on imports of genetically engineered salmon, deactivating Import Alert 99-40 to allow the sale and importation of AquaBounty Technologies’ AquAdvantage Salmon, the only currently approved GE salmon for food use, it said in a “questions and answers” page recently added to the FDA website. The move follows regulations recently issued by the Agricultural Marketing Service setting disclosure requirements for GE foods and set to take effect in 2022 (see 1812260052). Congress had in 2016 directed FDA to ban imports of GE salmon until a labeling standard was developed, a requirement FDA deemed satisfied with the issuance of USDA’s final rule. “FDA intends to revise” agency guidance for “food manufacturers who wish to voluntarily label their food products or ingredients (for humans or animals) derived from Atlantic salmon as not containing GE Atlantic salmon,” it said.

On March 7 the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:

On March 6 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 March 6 that lists the status of recalls and field corrections for food, cosmetics, tobacco products, drugs, biologics and devices. The report covers both domestic and foreign firms.

On March 5 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The Food and Drug Administration on March 6 announced an updated draft guidance document on mitigation strategies to protect food against intentional adulteration. Once finalized, the guidance will assist in compliance with regulations issued in 2016 requiring food facilities to implement defense measures against acts of terrorism (see 1605260013). The new version replaces an initial draft issued by FDA in 2018 (see 1806220016). A new chapter addresses education and training, and the updated version also has new sections of the existing chapter on vulnerability assessments on evaluation, identifying vulnerabilities and identifying actionable process steps. Comments on the revised draft guidance are due July 5.

On March 4 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 amending its food additive regulations to permit the use in feed and drinking water of animals of selenomethionine hydroxy analogue as a source of selenium in feed for chickens, turkeys, and swine, as well as to provide for the safe use of silicon dioxide as a carrier for selenomethionine hydroxy analogue. Adisseo France filed the underlying petition. The change takes effect March 6.

The Food and Drug Administration took out more than 20 percent of the food facility registrations that were in the agency's database in February, according to a March 4 blog post from Registrar Corp. Registrar said the decrease of some 47,635 "was likely caused by facilities failing to properly renew their registrations before the December 2018 renewal deadline." The FDA removes the registrations soon after the renewal period ends and "as of February 7, 2019, 186,016 food facilities remained in FDA’s database compared to the 233,651 registered in December 2018," the company said. Registrar also posted a registration breakdown by country. The Food Safety Modernization Act requires that food facilities renew FDA registrations during each even-numbered year. "Facilities with expired registrations must re-register with FDA and obtain a new registration number, prior to continuing manufacturing, processing, packing, or storing food for U.S. consumption," Registrar said.