Food and Beverage News and Trends - November 21, 2025

This regular publication by DLA Piper lawyers focuses on helping clients navigate the ever-changing business, legal, and regulatory landscape.

Congress closes the “hemp loophole” to eliminate intoxicating hemp-derived products. As part of the newly passed appropriations bill, Congress has enacted sweeping changes to the hemp framework established by the 2018 Farm Bill that will materially affect hemp and hemp derived cannabinoid products. The new legislation:

• Redefines hemp by restricting total tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to levels at or below 0.3 percent on a dry-weight basis
  
  
• Clarifies that synthetic cannabinoids, such as Delta-8 and tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA), are excluded from the definition of hemp, even when derived from legal hemp
  
  
• Establishes a limit of 0.4 milligrams of total THC (including THCA) per container in a final hemp-derived product

These provisions will take effect on November 12, 2026. For a full summary and analysis, see our alert.

Appropriations bill halts funding for enforcement of Food Traceability Rule. Also as part of the funding bill, Congress has restricted use of federal funds to “administer or enforce” Section 204 of the Food Safety Modernization Act, the Food Traceability Rule, until July 20, 2028. This provision aligns with a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed rule to extend the compliance date until that time, even if the proposed rule may not be finalized under this provision.

Canada: Deadline approaching for compliance with new Supplemented Foods Regulations. Foods sold in Canada must meet the requirements set out in the Food and Drugs Act and the Food and Drug Regulations as they pertain to foods. To permit sale of a food that does not meet the Food and Drug Regulations normally requires a regulatory amendment. However, in some specific cases, Health Canada has used certain tools – for example, Temporary Marketing Authorizations (TMAs) – to allow a noncompliant food to be sold before the regulatory amendments are made. TMAs have been granted, for example, for foods supplemented by the addition of non-permitted uses of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, or novel herbal or bioactive ingredients. Supplemented Food Regulations amending the Food and Drug Regulations to permit the sale of certain supplemented foods without the need for premarket authorization came into force in July 2022. With that development, TMAs issued for supplemented foods were no longer valid. However, manufacturers or distributors of supplemented foods that held a valid TMA for their products at the time the regulations came into force were given until December 31, 2025 to come into compliance with the new regime. With this date rapidly approaching, manufacturers and distributors should be aware that, starting in the new year, such TMAs are no longer valid, and all supplemented foods must comply with the Supplemented Food Regulations.

Executive Order exempts hundreds of agricultural goods from reciprocal tariffs. On November 14, President Donald Trump issued “Modifying the Scope of the Reciprocal Tariff with respect to Certain Agricultural Products,” an Executive Order (EO) that exempts hundreds of agricultural products from reciprocal tariffs. The EO sets out 237 classifications and 11 categories of agricultural products that qualify for the exemption. Among them are beef, bananas, tomatoes, coffee, tea, cashews, oranges, certain fertilizers, and foods used for religious purposes, such as communion wafers. For such imports, the change is retroactive to November 13. The EO further states, “To the extent that implementation of this order requires a refund of duties collected, refunds shall be processed pursuant to applicable law and the standard procedures of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.”

Major Italian pasta brands could disappear from US stores over tariffs. The EO, however, does not set out an exemption for imported pastas, leaving manufacturers facing potential 107-percent levies. On November 10, the Wall Street Journal reported that 13 major Italian pasta brands may stop exporting their products to the US as early as January 2026. The levies, the highest the White House has proposed on an individual product, include a 15-percent tariff on all goods from the European Union plus a 92-percent antidumping duty. The new levies could raise the price for these products from the current average of USD3.99 a pound to as much as USD7.99. The companies have asked the Commerce Department to revise its assessment and reduce the antidumping levy before it takes effect in January 2026. Italy is the US’s largest supplier of imported pastas, sending more than USD700 million worth of noodles to the US annually.

A new Reagan-Udall report supports FDA’s infant formula safety efforts. The Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA has released a report containing insights from four moderated roundtable discussions on infant formula safety held in September 2025. The Infant Formula Roundtable Series Report on Cross-sector Stakeholder Insights summarizes discussions with a diverse group of stakeholders, including public health experts, researchers, caregivers, and manufacturers, on the safety, quality, and regulation of infant formula in the US. The roundtable series was held to support FDA’s ongoing efforts under Operation Stork Speed, an initiative launched in May 2025 with the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to enhance infant formula safety and supply resiliency. That initiative was a response to a nationwide shortage of powdered infant formulas that began in 2022. Download the report here, and see some of our coverage of Operation Stork Speed here.

Official MAHA Summit. The Official Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Summit, featuring such participants as HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.; Vice President JD Vance; FDA Commissioner Martin Makary, MD; and Dr. Mehmet Oz, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, took place on November 12 in Washington, DC. The MAHA initiative was launched by an Executive Order in February 2025, followed by an Assessment report in May and a Strategy document in September. The closed-door summit did not allow members of the public or mainstream media, but the medical outlet STAT later interviewed attendees who stated that the event covered such issues as age reversal, biohacking, food as medicine, psychedelics, making food healthier, and access to GLP-1 pharmaceuticals.

USDA revising standards for pasteurized orange juice and three types of rice. The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), an arm of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), is updating the standards of identity for pasteurized orange juice (POJ) and three types of rice. An Interim Final Notice has been issued for POJ that would remove the current Brix minimums for Grade B unsweetened and sweetened POJ, instead adding a reference to FDA’s standards of identity regulations. The revisions are effective immediately under the Interim Final Notice. The comment period on this change closes January 20, 2026.

In addition, AMS is seeking comment on potential revisions to the standards of identity for brown rice for processing, milled rice, and rough rice. Those standards, AMS notes, were last opened for comment in 2015, and, AMS states, since then “rice production, quality assessment methods, and consumer preferences may have changed.”

Canada: CFIA seeks public input on proposal to update chronic wasting disease strategy. CFIA is proposing a major update to its Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) control program, shifting from mandatory herd culling to a regionally focused risk management approach. Under the proposed changes, automatic culling of infected farmed cervids (members of the deer family) would end in provinces with ongoing outbreaks – currently, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, where CWD has been identified in both wild and farmed deer populations. Instead, the CFIA plans to enhance surveillance, testing, and information sharing in high-risk areas. In regions where CWD has not been detected, the CFIA would continue to support aggressive eradication efforts if a new case emerges in farmed cervids, provided that provincial authorities commit to similar measures for surrounding wild populations. The revised strategy also emphasizes consistent precautionary testing of animals intended for the food supply. While there is no clear evidence that CWD can infect humans, scientific uncertainty remains, and the CFIA aims to reduce potential risks through a more targeted, region-specific approach. The public consultation period on the proposed changes closes today, November 21.

Launch of new Non-UPF Verified Certification. In a recent webinar for food companies, retailers, distributors, and other food sector stakeholders, the Non-GMO Project, a nonprofit organization focusing on food transparency and labeling, introduced its new Non-UPF Verified certification. The certification, the organization states, aims to address growing consumer concern about ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and interest in food products made with minimal processing and additives while filling a gap in accountability for producers of such foods. In spring 2026, about 20 food brands will take part in a pilot program testing the certification’s Non-UPF Verified label, reporting their insights about the label and certification to the Project. The Non-UPF standard will likely be finalized in summer 2026.

New legislation introduced to reform GRAS framework. On November 6, Senator Roger Marshall, MD (R-KS), introduced the Better Food Disclosure Act of 2025 (Better FDA Act), a measure intended to increase oversight of ingredients deemed Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS). If enacted, the bill would deem a substance adulterated unless the substances was notified to FDA and appears on a public list of all GRAS substances maintained by FDA. Substances currently in use would have to be notified to FDA within two years of enactment, and new substances would have to be notified within 120 days before their first use in food. FDA would have 180 days to act on any notification, either by adding the substance to the list or making a preliminary determination to exclude it. The legislation would allow challenges to FDA determinations about substances that are preliminarily excluded from the list or that are removed after FDA reevaluates their safety. All scientific determinations would have to be made by career FDA staff, not political appointees. Importantly, the bill does not include any preemption of state food ingredient laws and regulations. See the text of the Better FDA Act here.

Bolero Shellfish Processing fined record CAD1 million, banned from Temporary Foreign Worker Program for ten years. Bolero Shellfish Processing, based in Saint-Simon, New Brunswick, has been fined CAD1 million and barred from participating in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) until 2035 due to serious violations. These include failing to provide fair wages and safe working conditions and failure to comply with labor laws. The penalty, announced by Employment and Social Development Canada in October, is the largest ever issued under the TFWP. The company has also been added to the federal public list of noncompliant employers. Minister of Jobs and Families Patty Hajdu emphasized that the TFWP must not be misused and that protecting workers’ rights is essential to building a stronger, fairer Canadian economy. In response, Bolero Shellfish has filed an application for leave to commence a judicial review of the decision. The company argues that the penalties have caused significant reputational harm, comparable to a criminal conviction, and that the regulatory response was grossly disproportionate. It also claims that the federal inspection, which spanned more than four years, prejudiced its ability to adequately respond to the allegations.

Foreign food inspections at all-time low after FDA staff cuts. FDA inspections of foreign food facilities have reached their lowest level in more than a decade, according to a ProPublica analysis of federal data. About two dozen current and former FDA officials told ProPublica that they ascribe the pullback to deep staffing cuts under the Trump Administration. In March 2025, following February’s mass layoffs, the number of inspections was cut by nearly half from the prior average of 110 per month. Other than during the two years following the COVID-19 pandemic, at this writing the US is on track to have the fewest inspections on record since 2011, the year Congress mandated that FDA increase its foreign inspections to 19,200 by 2022. In FY2025, FDA conducted 775 foreign food and cosmetic inspections. This year, it has carried out three.

District court requires poultry feed manufacturer to retract disease prevention claims. A leading manufacturer of animal feeds must retract claims that one of its products protects hens against such viruses as H5N1. On November 11, the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio ruled that Purina Animal Nutrition LLC must send the retraction about its Farm to Flock hen food to 130,000 of its customers. Farm to Flock, Purina had claimed, contained FeedLock – a technology utilizing medium-chain fatty acids. The court noted that, while medium-chain fatty acids have been proven to prevent disease outbreaks in swine, no scientific evidence currently exists showing they may block disease outbreaks in poultry. While the court found that Purina “had engaged in false advertising when it stated that its feed helped defend against avian influenza,” it turned away the plaintiff’s wish that the court state it had definitively proven Purina’s statements were untrue – a proposal, the court concluded, that “goes too far.”

China purchases of US soybean. In our previous issue, we reported that COFCO Corporation Limited, the Chinese state-owned agri-food enterprise, had purchased three shipments of US soybeans totaling 180,000 tons – the first such purchases China has made this season. This week, Reuters reported on November 19, China announced additional US soybean purchases that bring the total it has bought from US sources this year to 1,354,000 tons. The US-China trade truce reportedly featured a commitment from China to purchase 12 million tons of US soybeans this year and at least 25 million tons annually through 2028, but, Bloomberg journalist Ben Westcott recently noted, “China has spent the past few months buying massive amounts of South American beans in a bid to diversify its sources. Therefore, Chinese demand is expected to be lower in the coming months regardless of any trade deal with the US.”

ANH calls on FDA to broaden access to medical foods. Hoping to expand the use of nutritional therapies in the management of chronic diseases and other conditions, the nonprofit Alliance for Natural Health USA (ANH) is calling for regulatory reforms that would broaden access to medical foods. The term “medical foods” refers to FDA-regulated food items specifically designed to meet the nutritional needs of individuals with particular illnesses or critical health conditions. Currently, FDA allows their use only under physician supervision. ANH’s Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan, released on October 30, seeks changes to these regulations. The roadmap states that “chronic and metabolic conditions continue to skyrocket and an aging population further intensifies demand for care. Properly formulated, GRAS-based, food-derived therapies can help manage these conditions earlier and more safely – often at lower total cost” than drug-based treatments. ANH is also calling for medical foods to be added to Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans Administration formularies when supported by clinical and economic data, a move that ANH says could lower healthcare costs, particularly for older adults.

New World Screwworm in the news.

• On November 13, USDA announced the opening of a sterile fly dispersal facility in Tampico, Mexico. The facility, USDA stated, will allow the dispersal of sterile New World Screwworm (NSW) flies aerially across northeastern Mexico, including in the border state of Nuevo Leon, where NSW has recently been detected. Aerial dispersals, which have been used successfully in the past to combat NSW outbreaks, allow the release of flies at a steady rate across large or inaccessible areas.
  
  
• The federal Stop the Screwworms With Active Readiness and Mitigation (SWARM) Act, S.2543, sponsored by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), passed the Senate on November 10 as part of the government funding legislation. Under the SWARM Act, the Secretary of Agriculture would be required to report to Congress, within 30 days, on the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s preparedness for NWS outbreaks in the US, particularly focusing on domestic readiness, partnerships with states and industry, and various aspects of sterile fly production technology.
  
  
• Speaking in Mexico City on November 4, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins stated that the US is not yet ready to reopen its border to Mexican cattle. She went on to praise Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and hailed the “sophisticated, impressive” cooperation between Mexico and the US on containment efforts, stating, "I believe sincerely, it is the most collaborative effort, perhaps in our lifetime, between the two different departments of agriculture." At present, about 250,000 head of Mexican livestock are waiting to enter the US. Importing them could alleviate the beef cattle shortage in the US and possibly exert downward pressure on record-high beef prices. But, Rollins stated, the cost of beef in the US is a "non-factor" in deciding whether and when to reopen the border. “We can never compromise the safety of the herd,” she affirmed.
  
  
• Agricultural officials in Texas and New Mexico are telling hunters, landowners, and wildlife managers that they are a first line of defense in the detection of NWS, urging them to be on the lookout for signs of NWS infestations in the field and to report suspected infestations to local wildlife officials. Texans are also being directed to this website for information about NWS, such as how to identify and report a suspected infestation. Last week, Texas Animal Health Commission inspectors began spot checks of cattle across the state for signs of NWS – for instance, stopping and inspecting cattle trucks along Texas highways.

Avian flu update.

• Turkey producers around the US are reporting that outbreaks of avian flu will likely mean fewer birds available for the Thanksgiving table, at a higher price – as much as 25 percent higher at retail than in 2024. This year, the overall US turkey flock has dropped to its lowest size in nearly 40 years due to outbreaks of H5N1 in such key states as Minnesota and Indiana.
  
  
• CFIA concludes operations on ostrich farm amid complaint from animal rights group. On November 7, CFIA issued a press release confirming it had moved forward with disease response and culled the ostrich population on a farm in Edgewood, British Columbia. On November 8, CFIA confirmed that it had completed the disposal activities of the ostrich carcasses, eggs, and other materials and had followed all biosecurity and containment protocols to mitigate the spreading of HPAI. All were disposed of through deep burial in an approved British Columbia landfill. The premises remains quarantined under the Health of Animals Act. Meanwhile, animal rights group Animal Justice has filed a complaint with the CFIA. It is Animal Justice’s position that CFIA’s actions may have violated Canada’s animal cruelty laws, including both the Criminal Code and provincial legislation.
  
  
• In Europe, sources are reporting further sharp increases in H5N1 cases in commercial and captive birds, particularly in Germany, where, from October 1 to November 5, 66 outbreaks were confirmed. Numerous other European states – among them Belgium, Czechia, France, Ireland, Poland, and the United Kingdom – have also reported recent outbreaks in commercial poultry operations. So far this year, 22 European countries have reported a total of 399 H5N1 outbreaks in commercial poultry operations.
  
  
• A phase-1 randomized controlled trial of an intranasal vaccine against multiple H5N1 avian flu strains generated a broad immune response in US adults, concludes a study published November 6 in Nature. The researchers, scientists at the University of Maryland, randomly assigned 40 adults aged 18 to 45 to receive either an adjuvanted, recombinant intranasal influenza A/H5 vaccine or a placebo. The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) observes of the outcome that, even without a booster, the intranasal vaccine triggered mucosal and systemic immunity, which other intranasal recombinant H5 flu vaccines have not achieved in clinical trials. It also was safe and well tolerated. See the study here.
  
  
• On November 6, Mexico’s Ministry of Health confirmed that a three-year-old girl had died of respiratory complications of H5N1. To date, extensive investigations have uncovered no other human infections related to her illness. On November 14, the Washington State Department of Health confirmed a case of avian flu in a resident of Grays Harbor County. Of note: unusually, the patient, an older adult, is ill with a different variant, H5N5. At this writing, health officials are still trying to determine potential sources of the infection.