FDA Sets Date for Public Meeting on Pet Foods

From the CVM Update:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is announcing a public meeting to obtain input from stakeholder groups, including, but not limited to, the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), veterinary medical associations, animal health organizations, and pet food manufacturers, on the development of standards for pet food, including ingredient standards and definitions, processing standards, and updated labeling standards. Establishment by regulation of such standards for pet food was mandated by the FDA Amendments Act of 2007 (FDAAA).

The public meeting will be held on May 13, 2008, from 8:00 am – 4:30 pm.

The public meeting will be held at The Gaithersburg Holiday Inn, 2 Montgomery Village Avenue, Gaithersburg, MD 20877.

If you wish to attend: Pre-registration is recommended although if space allows, they will accept walk-in registrations. When you pre-register, you can let them know if you wish to make a public comment at the meeting. They also have alternate methods for accepting public comments in the CVM Update.

Buried on this page:

FDA is sponsoring an additional public
meeting as part of its Animal Feed
Safety System (AFSS) initiative on
May 14, 2008, at the same location
as the May 13, 2008, FDAAA public meeting.
The AFSS is a system that FDA is
developing to minimize the risk to
animals and public health through the
use of risk-based, preventive, and
comprehensive animal feed control measures.
I'm not sure that "risk-based" and "comprehensive"
go together.
They haven't so far.

And referring to the May 13 meeting on pet foods,
FDA asks on this same page:
Should a Nutrition Facts box, similar to
the format that appears on human food
labels, replace the current Guaranteed
Analysis that currently appears on pet
food labels? If so, how could this Nutrition
Facts box be made to clearly distinguish it
from human food labeling?
We know that the pet food industry insiders
are against the idea of printing calorie
statements on pet foods.  But is FDA really
going to make it so easy for them to get out
of providing this simple information by implying
that people will confuse Dog Chow for Hot Pockets
just because of the Nutrition Facts on the label?
Dog help us...