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February 23, 2007
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing two public hearings concerning the safety of fresh produce. The first hearing is scheduled to take place on March 20, 2007 in the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building's Edward Roybal Auditorium in Oakland, California. The second hearing will take place on April 13, 2007 in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition's Harvey W. Wiley Auditorium in College Park, Maryland. The purpose of the hearings is for FDA to share information about recent outbreaks of foodborne illness associated with microbial contamination of fresh produce, and to solicit comments, data and other scientific information about current agricultural and manufacturing practices used to produce, harvest, pack, cool, process, and transport fresh produce; risk factors for contamination of fresh produce associated with these practices; and possible measures by FDA to enhance the safety of fresh produce. The hearings will include presentations by Agency officials and invited speakers, and an FDA panel Q&A for the invited presenters. Members of the public will then have the opportunity to present their views. For additional information, see the Federal Register Notice of Display.
In July 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced its new food defense awareness initiative, ALERT. ALERT identifies five key points that industry and businesses can use to decrease the risk of intentional food contamination at their facilities. In an effort to ensure that all stakeholders have access to the ALERT message, FDA has developed a web based training module titled "ALERT: Food Defense Awareness". This training module provides stakeholders with the information they need to begin thinking of ways to prevent intentional food contamination within their scope of control. The ALERT training module is now available on the CFSAN web site. If you have any questions regarding the ALERT initiative, including the content of the web-based training module, please contact Ms. Marion Allen via email at or at 301-436-1584.
