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Oh, Gee...MP

Concerns about food processing sanitation may lead to packaging and labeling changes, especially for allergens.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is likely to make the food industry swallow some labeling and packaging reforms as the agency moves forward on its revision of current good manufacturing practices (cGMPs) for food.

After three hearings this summer and the close of the public comment deadline in September, the agency is now chewing over whether it needs to upgrade controls companies must put in place to guard against physical, chemical, and microbiological contamination of food as it is processed and packaged. The GMPs are oriented toward sanitation: Their primary objective is to keep things like allergens, glass fragments, and residue from cleaning solutions out of food. Isolating food from Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods is another top priority, too.

Congress was already one step ahead of the agency in one area: food allergens such as peanuts, milk, and fish. Too many food recalls because of food processing line contamination with allergens caused Congress to pass a new law this summer requiring new labeling for foods containing potential allergens. More on this later.

Actually, the GMPs themselves do not address labeling directlyβ€”though they do make mention of packaging. The agency does have the authority, for example, under Section 110.93 of the current GMPs, to address β€œwarehousing and distribution” of food in order to protect the food and its container from contamination.

Pressure for temperature indicators

Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of the food safety program for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, wants the FDA to use that authority to require food companies to put time and temperature indicators (TTI) on β€œrefrigerated food products or those that have a shelf life that could be shortened” with significant temperature abuse.

β€œI have heard from producers that a monitor could be affixed to packages that change color permanently if the product is subject to temperature abuse,” she says in an interview. DeWaal would like to see TTIs on packages all the way from the packaging line to the grocery store shelf. But the FDA clearly does not have the authority to mandate TTIs in a retail setting.

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