USDA Terminates Proposed Marketing Agreement for Leafy Green Vegetables

WASHINGTONThe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has elected to terminate a proposal for a marketing agreement to regulate the handling of fresh leafy green vegetables such as cabbage, lettuce and spinach in the United States.

USDA on Thursday announced the decision in the Federal Register because food-safety produce rules that have been proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could affect material aspects of USDA's marketing agreement.

FDA's proposed rules"Standards for Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption" and "Current Good Manufacturing Practice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventative Controls for Human Food"were published in January under a comprehensive law that is intended to reduce incidents of foodborne illness: the nearly 3-year-old Food Safety Modernization Act.

"This ongoing rulemaking may affect fundamental aspects of the proposed leafy green vegetable marketing agreement program," USDA explained in the notice terminating its proposal.

The marketing agreement would have authorized the development and implementation of handling regulations, otherwise known as "audit metrics", reflecting FDA's Good Agricultural Practices, Good Handling Practices and Good Manufacturing Practices.

"Signatory handlers would have been required to only handle domestic and imported leafy green vegetables that met the audit requirements established under the agreement," USDA explained in the termination notice.