Food Safety and Inspection Service January 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This notice clarifies that flavor products, e.g., flavor bases, and blended and reaction/process flavors, with greater than 3 percent raw meat or poultry, or 2 percent or more cooked meat or poultry, in their formulation are amenable to Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) jurisdiction. Recent findings show that some manufacturers of flavor products formulated with significant levels of meat, meat byproducts, poultry, and poultry byproducts (e.g., 30-70 percent) are not aware that such products are under FSIS jurisdiction. These manufacturers need to take necessary steps to come under inspection.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is re-opening and extending the comment period on a petition submitted by Hormel Foods on the voluntary labeling claim ``natural'' and on the broader question of how to define this claim. The original comment period closed on January 11, 2007. The Agency is taking this action in response to requests that were made at and after a public meeting that the Agency held on December 12, 2006, to discuss both the Hormel petition and issues associated with the claim ``natural'' in general.