Here is a link to my article, “FDA’s Reportable Food Registry Profoundly Impacts Litigation and the Food Industry,” posted this week by the American Bar Association‘s Litigation Section (Products Liability). The article is a follow-on to lively discussions over the litigation impacts of the federal Reportable Food Registry (“RFR”) at the ABA’s recent Food & Supplements CLE at Coca-Cola World Headquarters in Atlanta. The RFR was created by Congress as part of the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) Amendments Act of 2007 and requires that a company submit a report to the FDA within 24 hours of discovering reportable adulterated food.
Two hot-button issues discussed at the ABA CLE (and in the ABA article) were whether the FDA (1) intends to use the RFR as an enforcement as well as an informational tool, and (2) will move toward the concept of “control” and away from “possession” in interpreting one of the key exceptions to the reporting requirement.