To: Seafood Community
Fr: Pamela Tom, Univ. of Calif., Sea Grant Extension Program
Recently, I was asked by someone in the seafood industry how the FDA would
inspect scallops based on its revised policy of May 10, 2004. (See:
http://listproc.ucdavis.edu/archives/seafood/log0405/0009.html)
The underlying Food Drug and Cosmetic Act and regulations still apply to
scallop moisture i.e. if a significant amount of water is added to the
product with labeling it could be considered misbranded and subject to
regulatory action.
In the May 10, 2004 revision, the U.S. FDA deleted the requirement for
discrete moisture percentages referenced in the 1992 interim policy
because "significant" is more difficult to determine based on new
information related to the varying water content of scallops.
Hopefully future scientific research will help define moisture limits.
Egregious misbranding would still probably evoke regulatory action.
Pamela Tom
University of California
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 20 2004 - 12:37:21 PDT