Food Safety Changes
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. In a significant move for the wine industry, the FDA announced last week it is NOT expecting producers of wine grapes, hops, pulse crops and almonds to meet Produce Safety Rules laid out in the Food Safety Modernization Act.
Along with the Washington Winegrowers Association, U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse has been calling for the change ...
NEWHOUSE ... "FDA was very responsive to us. We've been working with Dr. Gottlieb and his team at FDA to address the concerns that were brought to us by some of the crop representatives."
Newhouse says what it boils down to ...
NEWHOUSE ... "It really inserts some real common sense into the decision process here recognizing that there is a difference between fresh fruits and vegetables and those kinds of food products that require additional processing prior to consumption."
He says, because they're different ...
NEWHOUSE ... "It recognizes that and that those processes then make unnecessary the extra record keeping and paperwork that there would otherwise be if they were freshly consumed."
Newhouse says it was the right decision ...
NEWHOUSE ... "I was delighted by the direction that the FDA has taken. I think it means a lot the agriculture industry so that there are not battles with onerous, unnecessary record keeping and paperwork and certainly costs involved with that. And so, this was a good decision by the FDA and in no way negatively impact human health and safety."
He says the FDA's discretionary enforcement is welcome news for farm country.
