On November 23-25, 2011, the Food and Drug Administration posted notice of the following recalls of imported food, drugs, animal health products, biologics, or medical devices:
The Food and Drug Administration has posted a presentation on the Food Safety Modernization Act's focus on prevention. The presentation provides a brief overview of the FSMA provisions on produce safety standards, preventive controls for food and feed facilities, importer verification of foreign suppliers, and the sanitary transportation of food. Previously issued FAQs on the prevention provisions of the FSMA available here.
On November 23, the Food and Drug Administration took legal action against a dietary supplement maker and owner for substituting ingredients and products without noting the changes on the final product labels. The permanent injunction, filed on behalf of the FDA by the U.S. Department of Justice, would stop the defendants (ATF Fitness Products Inc., Manufacturing ATF Dedicated Excellence, Inc. (MADE), and James G. Vercellotti of Oakmont, Pa., owner and operator of both companies) from making and distributing more than 400 products for being in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. According to the FDA, this is the first time it has taken legal action against a dietary supplement manufacturer of this size for failure to comply with the dietary supplement current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) regulations.
The Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it is extending the Most Efficient ENERGY STAR pilot through the 2012 calendar year. While EPA intends to maintain the same basic scope and, to a large degree, the requirements of the 2011 pilot for 2012, EPA is proposing a limited number of modest changes. Comments on the proposed criteria should be submitted to mostefficient@energystar.gov by December 15, 2011. EPA will also host a conference call on November 30 to discuss the proposed criteria with interested parties. EPA's proposed 2012 Most Efficient criteria for clothes washers, refrigerators, and central ACs and heat pumps are available via email by sending a request to documents@brokerpower.com.
On November 22, 2011, 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 announcing that a proposed collection of information has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) concerning a guidance document that outlines the criteria and the process through which firms may request a reduction of fees based on severe economic hardship of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act reinspection and recall user fees that are mandated by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the FD&C Act).
On November 21, 2011, the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
On November 18, 2011, the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a CSMS message announcing that the Food and Drug Administration's Prior Notice System Interface (PNSI) was down for maintenance on November 19, 2011 between 1:00 AM EST and 12:00 PM EST. During this time, ACS, OASIS, and the link between ACS and OASIS were operational but PNSI was unavailable. Prior Notice could be submitted through the ABI/ACS system.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation have formally unveiled their joint proposal to set stronger fuel economy and greenhouse gas pollution standards for model year 2017-2025 passenger cars and light trucks. The proposed standards will affect SUVs, minivans, and pickup trucks, and will cut oil consumption by 4 billion barrels and cut 2 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution over the lifetimes of the vehicles sold during 2017-2025 .