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Labeling Requirements for Foods and Beverages Marketed in the U.S.

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October 7 – October 9

2 Day – Live Virtual Course

Provide the necessary training for your staff to assure food product labeling complies with U.S.
regulatory requirements and meets customer and consumer demands.

Food and beverage labeling requirements in the U.S. are complex and getting more comprehensive as market innovation trends change at a fast pace. You need to stay ahead of the curve as the Federal and State regulations, policies, and guidance continue to be refined and redefined. This course will provide you with the foundational and practical knowledge you need to comply with new and established labeling laws and regulations. The instructor, Dr. Robert Post, a former director of scientific and regulatory programs in federal agencies and industry, will cover emerging issues in regulations and labeling to help food sector professionals and product developers reformulate and react to marketplace drivers, such as clean/clear labeling, production and health claims, and responsible sourcing. Understanding the regulatory implications for labeling is essential for a product’s success in today’s market.


FOOD AND BEVERAGE LABELING TRAINING
This two-day virtual course is specifically designed for food industry professionals to receive in-depth instruction on USDA and FDA regulatory labeling requirements for food and beverage products sold in the U.S.


At the conclusion of this course, participants will have the knowledge and tools to understand and apply:

  1. The rules for mandatory labeling of food products
  2. Requirements for nutritional labeling
  3. Rules for health and nutrition claims
  4. Requirements for voluntary labeling features
  5. The rationale for hot topics in food and beverage labeling

Labeling Requirements for Foods and Beverages Marketed in the U.S.

· ·

June 10 – June 12

2 Day – Live Virtual Course

Provide the necessary training for your staff to assure food product labeling complies with U.S.
regulatory requirements and meets customer and consumer demands.

Food and beverage labeling requirements in the U.S. are complex and getting more comprehensive as market innovation trends change at a fast pace. You need to stay ahead of the curve as the Federal and State regulations, policies, and guidance continue to be refined and redefined. This course will provide you with the foundational and practical knowledge you need to comply with new and established labeling laws and regulations. The instructor, Dr. Robert Post, a former director of scientific and regulatory programs in federal agencies and industry, will cover emerging issues in regulations and labeling to help food sector professionals and product developers reformulate and react to marketplace drivers, such as clean/clear labeling, production and health claims, and responsible sourcing. Understanding the regulatory implications for labeling is essential for a product’s success in today’s market.


FOOD AND BEVERAGE LABELING TRAINING
This two-day virtual course is specifically designed for food industry professionals to receive in-depth instruction on USDA and FDA regulatory labeling requirements for food and beverage products sold in the U.S.


At the conclusion of this course, participants will have the knowledge and tools to understand and apply:

  1. The rules for mandatory labeling of food products
  2. Requirements for nutritional labeling
  3. Rules for health and nutrition claims
  4. Requirements for voluntary labeling features
  5. The rationale for hot topics in food and beverage labeling

Federal Agencies Publish A Joint National Strategy to Reduce U.S. Food Loss and Waste

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Food waste is estimated at between 30 to 40 percent of the food supply in the United States. This figure, based on estimates from USDA’s Economic Research Service of food loss at the retail and consumer levels, corresponded to approximately 133 billion pounds and $161 billion worth of food in 2010. Food is the single largest category of material placed in municipal landfills. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) jointly published a draft strategy to prevent the loss and waste of food and increase organic waste recycling. The Draft National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics outlines targeted actions by USDA, EPA and FDA to mitigate the economic and environmental repercussions of wasted food. The strategy is a step towards meeting the national goal of reducing food loss and waste by 50% by 2030.

The four objectives of the strategy are:

  • Preventing the loss of food where possible.
  • Preventing the waste of food where possible.
  • Increasing the recycling rate for all organic waste.
  • Supporting policies that incentivize and encourage food loss and waste prevention and organics recycling.

For each objective, the draft strategy highlights actions that USDA, EPA, and FDA could take. Some of the priority USDA actions include:

  • Investing $30 million in the Composting and Food Waste Reduction (CFWR) Cooperative
    Agreements.
  • Expanding partnerships with NIFA food system programs to further develop educational
    materials, research and outreach for food loss and waste prevention.
  • Funding research and development on innovative new packaging technology to extend the shelf life of food and prevent loss.

Comments are invited on the Draft National Strategy for Reducing Food Loss and Waste and Recycling Organics. The public comment period opened on December 5 for thirty days. Share comments through Regulations.gov, Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OLEM-2022-0415.

For more information about Food Loss and Waste Reduction activities visit:

Multiyear Listeria Outbreak Attributed to Peaches, Plums, &Nectarines

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Whole peaches, plums, and nectarines (i.e. stone fruit) have been implicated in a multistate outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes infections. Initially, an epidemiological investigation indicated
people in this outbreak were 18 times more likely to eat peaches, plums, or nectarines. Subsequent sampling and testing of 2lb bagged peaches from the supplier were found positive by FDA and linked with whole genome sequencing to the outbreak strain. Further analysis indicates that this outbreak has led to one death and eleven illnesses occurring as far back as August 2018.


This is not the first outbreak associated with stone fruit. An outbreak involving Salmonella Enteritidis contaminated peaches occurred in 2020 causing 101 reports of illness. In a 2014 outbreak, the first cases of listeriosis involving contaminated stone fruit (i.e. whole peaches, nectarines, plums, and pluots) were reported. Pathogens generally persist on the contaminated fruit surface (i.e. skin) and can cause illness if not properly sanitized before consumption.

An investigation report for the 2020 outbreak published by FDA examined the potential sources and routes of Salmonella product contamination from associated peach orchards and packing lines. Environmental samples were collected from the packing houses, product samples (peaches) from the packing houses and orchards, and peach tree leaves from the orchards during the investigations. All tested negative for presence of the outbreak strain. This may have been due to subsequent cleaning/sanitization and review/update of food safety programs that occurred during the product recall. However, multiple Salmonella isolates from product and leaf sampling genetically resembled previous chicken and cattle isolates, not associated with any known foodborne illnesses. FDA hypothesized that the adjacent animal operations (both poultry and cattle) were a likely contributing factor to the Salmonella Enteritidis outbreak – with fugitive dust as one possible route of product contamination.

Similar to Salmonella, L. monocytogenes is ubiquitous in nature. It can spread from the growing
environment to harvesting and packing equipment, establishing itself in the processing environment if poor sanitation practices are used. A 2014 outbreak involving L. monocytogenes contaminated whole apples found numerous locations in a processing facility positive for the pathogen where environmental surfaces came into contact with product.


Whole fruits, such as peaches, are considered a raw agricultural commodity and need to comply with regulations set forth in the Produce Safety Rule for the safe growing, harvesting, packing, and holding of fruits and vegetables grown for human consumption. Guidance to meet these requirements is available from FDA.

IFSAC Releases Foodborne Illness Source Attribution Estimates for 2021

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The model estimated percentage of foodborne Salmonella, Escherichia coli O157, and Listeria
monocytogenes illnesses in 2021 attributed to each of 17 food source categories was recently released by the Interagency Food Safety Analytics Collaboration (IFSAC) made up of members from CDC, FDA, and USDA-FSIS.

The IFSAC group was established in 2011 to improve coordination of federal food safety analytic efforts and address priorities for food safety data collection, analysis, and use. IFSAC analyzes foodborne illness outbreak data for priority pathogens and specific foods and food categories responsible for foodborne illnesses in the United States. The data are analyzed by calendar
year and released in annual reports as part of ongoing efforts to understand sources of foodborne illness in the United States. The CDC estimates that together these priority pathogens — Salmonella, E. coli O157, Campylobacter, and L. monocytogenes — cause nearly two million cases of foodborne illnesses in the U.S. each year.

Foodborne illness source attribution estimates were generated from surveillance data collected between 1998 through 2021. The dataset included 1,322 outbreaks in which the confirmed or suspected implicated food or foods could be assigned to a single food category: 987 caused or suspected to be caused by Salmonella, 275 by E. coli O157, and 60 by L. monocytogenes. These include 46 outbreaks caused by
multiple serotypes of Salmonella. IFSAC assessed which categories of foods were most responsible for Salmonella, E. coli O157, and L. monocytogenes infections. These pathogens were chosen because of the frequency or severity of the illnesses they cause, and because targeted interventions can have a major impact in reducing them. The implicated foods were divided into 17 categories for the analysis. The method used for estimation gave the greatest weight to the most recent five years of outbreak data (2016–2020). The top food categories associated with each pathogen are detailed below.

For Salmonella, over 75% of illnesses were attributed to seven food categories including chicken, fruits, pork, seeded vegetables (such as tomatoes), other produce (such nuts), beef, and turkey. Estimated Salmonella illnesses were more evenly distributed across food categories than illnesses from E. coli O157, and L. monocytogenes.

Over 80% of E. coli O157 illnesses were attributed to vegetable row crops, such as leafy greens (lettuce, spinach), celeries, broccoli, and beef. Vegetable row crops had a significantly higher estimated attribution percentage than all other categories followed by beef.

For L. monocytogenes, over 75% of illnesses were attributed to dairy (fluid milk, hard and soft cheese), fruits (melons, apples, cherries, berries, mangoes, avocados), and vegetable row crops. However, the small total number of outbreaks (60) in the data set caused this estimate to be less reliable than estimates for the other pathogens.


The attribution of Salmonella illnesses to multiple food categories suggests that multiple types of
interventions are required to reduce illnesses from these pathogens. In contrast, the majority of E. coli O157 illnesses were attributed to two food categories suggesting that interventions for E. coli O157 focusing on these two food categories may be most effective in reducing illnesses. Most
L. monocytogenes illnesses were attributed to three food categories implicated in outbreaks in recent years.


Campylobacter attribution estimates were not provided. This was due to concerns about the limitations of using outbreak data that attributes Campylobacter illnesses to foods that are not routinely consumed by the general public. For example, 90% of dairy outbreaks involved raw milk and 55% of chicken outbreaks involved chicken livers, neither of which are readily consumed by the general public. As such, IFSAC analysts are developing other methods to estimate the sources of Campylobacter infection in future publications.

The authors advise that the estimates provided should not be interpreted as suggesting that all foods in a category are equally likely to transmit pathogens and comparisons over years can be skewed by a limited number of outbreaks. These results should be used with other scientific data for decision making. Overall, the attribution estimates can help inform efforts to prioritize food safety initiatives, interventions, and policies for reducing foodborne illnesses. The estimates also allow stakeholders (i.e. scientists; federal, state, and local policy-makers; the food industry; consumer advocacy groups; and the public) to assess whether prevention-oriented measures are working at intended.

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