The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is extending enforcement discretion for certain Food Safety Modernization Act requirements as they pertain to cotton. Because cottonseed is widely used as dairy feed, it technically falls under the parameters of the Animal Food Rule. President and CEO of the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association, Roger Isom said FDA recognized the lack of risk associated with cottonseed but required further review before establishing a full exemption.
“This enforcement discretion allowed them to continue to research and find out, are there other problems out there? Or could there be other problems? There hasn’t been. We keep pressing to finalize this thing, but they’re not quite done,” said Isom. “What they did in this latest announcement was kind of renew, if you will, the enforcement discretion. Just to let us know, ‘hey, don’t worry about it guys. You’re still good, but we still need more time.’ I’m oversimplifying it, but that’s basically what it means.”
Listen to the radio report below.
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