spent brewing grains
Last week in FDA’s Proposed Regulation of Brewers’ Spent Grains is All Wet, we explained the deep flaws in the Food and Drug Administration’s proposed application of the Food Safety Modernization Act to the by-products of brewing, distilling, and winemaking when those spent grains and grapes are sold or donated to farmers for livestock feed. We certainly weren’t alone in finding the proposal deeply misguided and entirely counterproductive to other goals such as environmental sustainability, local sourcing, and reducing food prices.
It seems the cacophony and the diversity of voices expressing their disapproval got through to the leadership at FDA. Politico Pro reported in its Morning Agriculture email blast this morning that New York Senator Chuck Schumer had received a call from FDA Commissioner Hamburg assuring him that changes were coming. Sen. Schumer’s office put out this statement. Also, in an April 24 FDA Voice blog post, “Getting It Right on Spent Grains,” Deputy Commissioner for Food Dr. Michael Taylor (who, we noted in our post last week, assured House members FDA would not “impose [food safety] regulations for the sake of regulating”) wrote “we agree with those in industry and the sustainability community that the recycling of human food by-products to animal feed contributes substantially to the efficiency and sustainability of our food system and is thus a good thing. We have no intention to discourage or disrupt it.”
We applaud FDA’s willingness to see reason and admit error here, though we remain puzzled as to how the proposal came about in the first place.