Washington - The National Food Processors Association (NFPA) called on the FDA to withdraw its proposed mandatory HACCP program for processors and promptly impose a requirement that all fruit and vegetable juices be pasteurized or receive an equivalent treatment to ensure their safety.
"NFPA and its member companies respectfully submit that FDA's proposed mandatory Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) program for processors of juice is factually, scientifically and legally insupportable," said Dr. Rhona Applebaum, NFPA's Executive Vice President for Scientific and Regulatory Affairs. "Of primary concern, the proposal falls far short of an adequate regulatory response to the demonstrated safety risks attributable to unpasteurized fruit and vegetable juices, and leaves exposed to those risks a substantial segment of the American public that consumes some 600 million servings of unpasteurized juice each year."
NFPA's comments were filed in response to FDA's proposed rule requiring a HACCP program for juice manufacturers. On July 8, FDA issued a rule on labeling of unpasteurized juices. The regulations do not require pasteurization or heat treatment for all juices, as NFPA had urged, but rather requires warning labels on unpasteurized products, to alert consumers that unpasteurized juices can contain bacteria that pose a special risk to certain individuals, particularly children and older Americans.
In its comments, NFPA urged that FDA promptly impose a requirement that all juices be pasteurized or receive an equivalent treatment, which would destroy microorganisms of public health significance. Withdraw the Agency's juice HACCP proposal - which is unnecessary and unduly intrusive - and thereby avoid a protracted rulemaking process that would itself impose excessive costs and burdens on both FDA and the food industry. Enforce - and improve as deemed necessary - the Agency's Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) regulations, in order to assure that all juices are processed under sanitary conditions.
Dr. Applebaum noted that "While NFPA strongly supports HACCP where it can be justified and is effective, the fact remains that mandating HACCP for juice companies adds burdensome and unnecessary requirements on the food industry. We are perplexed why FDA would propose to require HACCP for juice production - which cannot guarantee a kill step for disease-causing organisms - but not mandate pasteurization of all juice products, as is now required for milk. Pasteurization would assure food safety by eliminating these organisms in juices."
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