This regular publication by DLA Piper lawyers focuses on helping clients navigate the ever-changing business, legal, and regulatory landscape.
Justin Ransom, MS, PhD to head FSIS. On July 3, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins appointed Dr. Justin Ransom to be the Food Safety and Inspection Service’s new Administrator. Ransom began his career at the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, working to develop standards for the National School Lunch Program, and since then has held senior leadership positions in the private sector with responsibility for sustainability, food safety, animal welfare, and quality systems. Most recently, Ransom served as Senior Director of Sustainable Food Strategy at Tyson Foods. He holds an MS and PhD in Animal Science from Michigan State University and Colorado State University. Dr. Denise Eblen, who has been serving this year as Acting Administrator, has been appointed to the role of Deputy Administrator.
FDA publishes 2025 Human Foods Program guidance agenda. The proposed 2025 guidance agenda for the FDA’s Hunan Foods Program has been released. Three of the seven guidance documents listed as “under development” – covering opiate alkaloids in poppy seeds, food coloring derived from natural sources, and new dietary ingredients in supplements – are new. Four were originally expected to publish in December 2024. The agency also notes that it may also advance guidances that are not on the list; this could include a number of draft guidances that had been under development last year. See the complete list of the priority guidances here.
Canada moves to reduce internal trade barriers and strengthen domestic economy. On June 26, 2025, the One Canadian Economy Act received Royal Assent. This legislation aims to boost productivity, economic growth, and competitiveness through two key statutes: the Building Canada Act and the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act. The Building Canada Act seeks to accelerate nation-building infrastructure projects by streamlining federal review and approval processes. The Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act removes federal barriers to internal trade and labor mobility by recognizing equivalent provincial and territorial regulations as meeting federal standards for the movement of goods, services, and workers within Canada. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce welcomed the legislation, expressing optimism about its potential to address long-standing internal barriers that have hindered the domestic economy. Further, on July 8, the Committee on Internal Trade signed a memorandum of understanding to permit direct-to-consumer alcohol sales – excluding Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. While details are still being finalized, the initiative would allow consumers to purchase alcohol directly from producers, potentially across provincial and territorial borders, bypassing government-regulated distributors and retailers.
Makary urges a “radical transformation” of communications about food recalls. In a July 9 letter, FDA Commissioner Martin A. Makary wrote to infant formula, baby foods, and children’s foods manufacturers asking them to collaborate with the agency in a “radical transformation” of the way food recalls of their products are managed and communicated. Makary began by urging manufacturers to improve the ways they communicate with the public and with regulators about product recalls, to ensure “greater awareness.” To achieve this, he suggested, manufacturers should “consider expanded use of public notification as appropriate.” He urges manufacturers to partner with the agency in an overhaul of the approach to product recalls, “leveraging communications best practices as well as cutting-edge technologies to revolutionize how we work together to collect, analyze, and disseminate crucial recall information.” The letter sets out a series of short- and long-term goals for these public-private partnerships. See the letter here.
FDA opens VQIP application portal to avert import delays. The application window for the FDA’s Voluntary Qualified Importer Program (VQIP) portal for FY 2026 benefits closes on September 1. VQIP, the agency notes, is “a fee-based program that offers importers an opportunity to expedite the review and importation process of human and animal foods into the United States by demonstrating and maintaining control over the safety and security of their supply chains.” To participate in the program, importers must meet certain conditions – among them, having their foreign suppliers audited and certified under FDA’s Accredited Third-Party Certification Program by an accredited third-party certification body. FDA is urging importers to submit their applications early to avoid delays. For more information about the application process, please visit this FDA page. VQIP benefits will start on October 1, provided the application has been approved and the user fee has been paid.
FDA issues final guidance on conducting Remote Regulatory Assessments. FDA has released its final guidance regarding its use of Remote Regulatory Assessments (RRAs) for all FDA regulated products, including human and animal foods. Conducting Remote Regulatory Assessments--Questions and Answers will help increase the industry’s understanding of voluntary and mandatory RRAs, including describing what an RRA is, who may be subject to an RRA, when an RRA might be used, expectations around the process (including the consequences declining participation), associated record requests, and the closeout of an RRA. Download the final guidance here.
FDA revises Compliance Program for food facility inspections. The FDA has announced a revision of its Compliance Program setting out the procedures and guidelines FDA inspectors follow when inspecting food facilities, both in the US and abroad. The revisions, the agency states, reflect “current labeling regulations, operational guidance, and enforcement priorities.” Among the developments reflected in the program: guidance on gluten-free labeling; the incorporation of sesame as the ninth major food allergen under the Food Allergy Safety, Treatment, Education, and Research (FASTER) Act of 2021; and the 2016 updates to the Nutrition Facts label. The program also has a new name: General Food Labeling Requirements and Labeling-Related Sample Analysis – Domestic and Import.
Texas bans cell-cultivated meat. Texas is now the seventh state in the US to ban the sale of cultivated meat, also called lab-grown meat, with the signing into law of SB 261 on June 25. The act prohibits “the offering for sale and the sale of cell-cultured protein for human consumption.” Similar laws are already on the books in Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Nebraska. Like Indiana’s law, the Texas ban expires in two years, which some observers say may help the state avoid legal challenges. Meanwhile, a lawsuit brought by Upside Foods, a cultivated meat company, and the Institute for Justice over Florida’s ban on cultivate meat continues to move forward. While the federal approval process for cell-cultured animal proteins has green-lighted only a few products, multiple startups are reportedly planning to build cultivated meat production facilities in the US.
Louisiana will require ingredient disclosures of 44 food additives, requires disclosure of 8 seed oils at food service establishments, and bans 15 ingredients from school meals. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has signed into law SB 14, comprehensive legislation inspired by the MAHA movement. SB 14 requires food manufacturers to disclose the presence of 44 ingredients on food packaging via a QR code which must lead to a webpage with this warning: “NOTICE: This product contains [insert ingredient here]. For more information about this ingredient, including FDA approvals, click HERE.” That link leads in turn to the FDA’s landing page on food chemical safety. In addition, SB 14 requires food service establishments to warn customers about the use and presence of seed oils through a disclaimer on food menus or another clearly visible location that states: “Some menu items may contain or be prepared using seed oils.” Furthermore, SB 14 bans the use of 15 food ingredients in school meals starting with the 2028-2029 school year. See our coverage of similar legislation recently enacted in Texas.
Grain Millers invests CAD30 million into a flax processing plant. This investment comes at a time when flax acreage across the Prairies has been declining, yet demand for flax remains steady due to its continued use in the food industry, such as in baking and cereal blends. By establishing this facility in Saskatchewan, Grain Millers is supporting local producers through improved access to processing infrastructure while helping to stabilize the flax supply chain. At present, nearly all of the flax processed at the plant is sold within Canada and the United States, although offshore demand is growing. The facility not only adds value within the province but also reflects confidence in the long-term viability of flax as a key Canadian crop.
Supreme Court turns away challenge to California’s Prop 12. On June 30, the US Supreme Court declined to hear a case brought by the Iowa Pork Producers Association (IPPA) that had challenged California’s Proposition 12. Prop 12 sets California standards for the sale of certain egg, veal, and pork products – most notably, it bans the sale of pork in California from farms anywhere in the country that confine pregnant pigs in “gestation crates” for almost their whole lives. In June 2024, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed an appeal from the IPPA, which had been attempting to reverse Prop 12. That ruling will now remain in place.
Sofina Foods fined CAD330 thousand after worker dies in smokehouse. The multinational company pled guilty to an Occupational Health and Safety Act charge following the death of 32-year-old employee in March 2023. The employee was found unresponsive after being trapped in a smokehouse with a broken emergency release handle – a hazard that was reported months earlier but never fixed. A temporary stopper had been installed but could only be opened from outside. The employee had not received proper emergency training. The fine will fund a confined-space safety program for food workers through the Alberta Food Processors Association.
Study finds synthetic dyes are widely present in food and beverage products, particularly in foods with higher sugar content. A study published on June 24 in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics reports that as much as 19 percent of foods and beverages sold in the US contain synthetic dyes. The study evaluated the ingredients of 39,763 US grocery store products made by the top 25 US food and beverage manufacturers. The leading finding: as much as 19 percent of packaged foods and beverages – representing $46 billion in sales in 2020 – contained synthetic food dyes. Moreover, the study looked at products it categorized as “marketed to children” and found that 28 percent contained synthetic dyes, compared with 11 percent in the remaining categories. The study also found that, while products containing synthetic dyes tended to have lower levels of sodium and saturated fat, sugar content in such products was relatively high, particularly in products marketed to children. In sum, the researchers stated, “The finding that food and beverage products in the top 5 categories marketed to children were not only more likely to contain synthetic food dyes, but that those with synthetic dyes also contained 264% higher levels of total sugar, is cause for concern.” See the study here.
The return of FEWS NET. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) – regarded as the world’s foremost tool for understanding food insecurity and preventing deadly famines - is gradually coming back on line. FEWS NET went dark in late January as the Trump Administration began dismantling the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which funded it and coordinated its operations. Created in 1985 in the wake of famines in Africa that killed a million people, FEWS NET gathers data from such sources as NASA and NOAA on climate, food pricing, agriculture, and trade, then categorizes the information on a five-phase scale of increasing severity to predict patterns and trajectories up to nine months out. At this writing, FEWS NET is up, now under the aegis of the State Department, and prominently features its June 2025 Global Food Security Update on its home page. The home page also notes: “Key Messages for more than 20 FEWS NET-monitored countries will be available in July 2025. Please continue to check our website in the coming months as we reinstate our reporting cycle and expand country coverage.”
Administration is urged to act against health risks of alcohol consumption. On June 18, 24 prominent consumer, public health, and food allergy groups called on the Trump Administration to include alcohol in its efforts to reduce chronic disease. The groups wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to highlight the impact of alcohol on the development of chronic disease in both children and adults. The letter emphasized the need for stronger federal labeling policies to better disclose the health risks of alcohol and to provide key nutrition, ingredients, and allergen information. It also pointed to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that, in 2020-2021, the most recent year of data available, 178,000 deaths in the United States were attributable to excessive alcohol use, both acute and chronic. In the US, most alcoholic products are regulated not by HHS but by the Department of the Treasury.
Avian flu update.
- In the 30 days before this writing, USDA confirmed only one outbreak of H5N1 in dairy cattle, in a dairy herd in Arizona.
- No new commercial farm outbreaks in two months: Canada’s poultry industry has marked over two months with no new highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) cases in commercial flocks. No commercial poultry operation has reported HPAI since early May, with only a few isolated cases in small backyard flocks during that period. This pause has provided some relief to producers, though the industry remains on high alert. The risk of H5N1 persists: data from the US suggests that about six percent of human infections with the current H5N1 strains result in illness severe enough to require medical attention. Poultry outbreaks continue globally, infected dairy herds are still being identified, and Cambodia has reported 12 bird-to-human H5N1 cases so far this year.
- In a June 26 update on the state of the USDA’s five-pronged strategy to combat H5N1, Secretary Brooke Rollins said that the Administration’s plan to combat soaring egg prices “has worked, and families are seeing relief.” Wholesale egg prices are down 64 per cent, she said, and retail prices have fallen by 27 per cent from their peak earlier in 2025. She also called on state regulators and egg producers to work with the USDA on their biosecurity assessments. Under the strategy, USDA is covering 100 per cent of assessment costs as well as up to 75 per cent of the cost of remediation of high-risk vulnerabilities. Since Rollins announced the strategy in February, USDA has paid more than $70 million to help producers repopulate their flocks.
- Meanwhile, US breakfast chains are ending their egg surcharges, a move also being made by numerous local eateries. Waffle House, for instance, is eliminating its surcharge of 50 cents an egg.
- Trade impacts – Brazilian poultry imports: In May, Brazil confirmed its first HPAI outbreak on a commercial poultry farm, prompting many nations – including Canada, China, the EU, Chile and others – to ban imports of Brazilian chicken as a precaution. As of early July, Brazil declared its commercial flocks free of bird flu after 28 days with no new cases and is seeking to reverse those trade bans. Canadian authorities will be assessing when it’s safe to lift import restrictions on Brazilian poultry products in line with international protocols.
- University Professional and Technical Employees-CWA Local 9119 (UPTE-CWA 9119) members who work in a laboratory that tests and tracks bird flu infections in California livestock are suing the University of California, Davis, calling for the public release of records about its staffing and testing operations. Lab workers raised concerns in December 2024 about staff cuts that, they stated, created the potential of inaccurate testing and failed to properly serve California agribusiness. The lawsuit charges that in denying the union's request for records regarding short staffing and testing errors, the university is violating California’s public records laws. To date, more cases of H5N1 have been confirmed in dairy cattle in California than in any other state.
- A report released by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) on July 3 states that the H5N1 genotype currently affecting US dairy cows could be inadvertently introduced to Europe via “the seasonal migration of wild birds and the importation of certain US products, such as those containing raw milk” or bovine meat. EFSA intends to release recommendations for preventing the spread of the genotype into Europe by the end of the year.
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