During the era of President Donald Trump, thousands of regulations were rolled back in many of the various agencies that have been merrily promulgating rules with no apparent stopping point.
When Biden took office, he reversed course…and is currently reaping the consequences.
However, in an intriguing move, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has taken a break from all its Covid-meddling to rescind regulations over French dressing.
Since 1950, the federal government has defined French dressing by a rigid set of standards that it had said would protect consumers from “economic adulteration,” or food fraud, and reflect their expectations about food.Distinguished by its reddish-orange color and sweet taste, French dressing had been required to contain at least 35 percent vegetable oil, in addition to an acid, such as vinegar or lemon or lime juice.But an industry group contended that the regulations were, well, passé. The standards, it said, hampered the ability of food companies to tweak their recipes to meet changing tastes and dietary needs. The group wondered: Why should French dressing be bound by regulations when most other dressings are not?
The Association of Dresses and Sauces (ADS) has been working on the issue for the last….23 years.
Now that the standard of identity is revoked, French dressing products will no longer be required to include certain oils and ingredients to be characterized as “French dressing.” This opens the door for new flavors and ingredients to be included in French dressing, adding “innovation” to the product.”Revoking the standard will allow for greater innovation and more flexibility of products on the market,” the FDA’s statement read.The battle for deregulation started on Jan. 13, 1998 when the ADS first filed a petition. The ADS argued regulating the exact ingredients and products that create French dressing was “unfair” and halted innovation in the product.”Revocation of the standard of identity for French dressing could provide greater flexibility in the product’s manufacture, consistent with comparable, non-standardized foods available in the marketplace,” ADS’s petition stated.
Meanwhile, the FDA has approved using the one million Covid tests sitting in a Floria warehouse after passing their expiration dates.
Florida officials confirmed last week that between 800,000 and 1 million COVID tests had expired in a warehouse just before the New Year due to “low demand.” On January 7, the Food and Drug Administration issued a letter to Abbott Diagnostics, which produced the tests, saying they have extended the shelf-life for those tests and that they can still be used.The Florida Department of Health provided the letter from the FDA to CBS News, in which the agency says that the thousands of BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card tests can be used until March. The extension, the FDA said, is based on the results of Abbott’s ongoing stability studies.The tests, according to Florida Department of Health Press Secretary Jeremy Redfern, are pre-packaged kits that have to be administered by “trained individuals,” and are not designed for individual use.
These two items are great examples of our government agencies no longer being effective at their core missions.
Meanwhile, check out this 1977 commercial for Kraft French Dressing….and imagine what would happen if it were made today.
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