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Temporary policy allows ‘minor formulation changes’ to some food without label adjustments

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has implemented a temporary policy that allows manufacturers to keep existing food labels unchanged after a “minor formulation change” has been made to the product.

The FDA said this does not apply to foods that cause allergies or food sensitivities.

The reason for the change is because manufacturers said the pandemic has caused a shortage of some supplies, according to the FDA.

“A good example is bleached flour,” a spokesperson for the FDA said about the food that will be impacted. “The food industry has made us aware that they are having challenges obtaining the bleaching agent benzoyl peroxide. Given significant supply chain disruptions for this ingredient at this time, the FDA will not object to the use of unbleached flour in products labeled as containing “bleached” flour.

“It’s not unreasonable to think that if there’s supply chain disruptions that there might be some tiny substitution that manufacturers could make that wouldn’t necessarily be labeled as long as they didn’t impact safety,” said Laura MacCleery, Policy Director for Center in the Science of Public Interest (CSPI).

The policy change also gives flexibility to vending machine companies when it comes to the calorie count on labels.

CSPI cautions while the policy may make sense for now, it shouldn’t extend beyond the COVID-19 crisis.

"It should not be an excuse to deregulate the food sector permanently,” MacCleery said. "Everyone can understand we're operating under very special circumstances right now, but those circumstances will hopefully one day come to an end and we should have those same consumer protections that were in place before the pandemic."

The FDA said it’s a temporary policy meant to last during the pandemic, but the language of the guidance said the FDA may consider an extension after getting public input once the public health emergency is over.

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