New FDA Nutrition Labels Allowed on Meat and Poultry Until New Scheme Finalized, FSIS Says

Meat and poultry establishments may voluntarily adopt the recently changed Food and Drug Administration nutrition facts label format while the Food Safety and Inspection Service considers its own nutrition labeling update, FSIS said Nov. 16 (here). “As long as the information on the labels is still truthful and not misleading, FSIS will not find noncompliance if companies use the FDA format,” it said. “When FSIS publishes a final rule to update the Nutrition Facts label format for meat and poultry products, companies would have to comply with that final rule by the effective date and will no longer be able to use the FDA format if it is different from the FSIS format.” FDA finalized changes to its nutrition labeling format in May (see 1605200021). Comments on the new FSIS policy are due Dec. 16.