Industry observers are becoming increasingly critical of FDA's protracted delay in issuance of important FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act) Proposed Rules, some of which have been held at OMB (Office of Management and Budget) for more than one-year. The Center for Food Safety has now received a response to its Complaint filed in August (Center for Food Safety v. Margaret Hamburg) which we discussed in our August 30 Post (below). 

On November 30, FDA filed a Motion to Dismiss and for Summary Judgment which we post below. This extraordinary delay in FDA's rulemaking process under FSMA is creating increasing uncertainty in many industries. For example, our Produce Industry clients now face the likelihood of another production season without effective food safety guidance from FDA. This means that we go into the 2013 crop year without input from FDA on lessons learned from the 2011 cantaloupe related listeria outbreak.

To many observers it seems unconscionable that FDA and the White House would delay rulemaking for political purposes in the wake of the more than 30 cantaloupe related deaths in the Jensen Farms incident.