Food and Beverage News and Trends - June 15, 2026

Bill to create non-ultra-processed food label clears California State Assembly. The California State Assembly has passed AB 2244, which would create a state certification program identifying food products as non-ultra-processed (non-UPF). Foods certified under AB 2244 would be allowed to bear a standardized label with the phrase “Non-Ultraprocessed Certified” only if they are classified as UPF under California’s AB 1264, which created a statutory definition of UPF. Under AB 2244, the California Department of Public Health would oversee approved agents’ independent certification of products that meet the state’s non-UPF standard. Certified products would be required to undergo recertification at least every three years. In addition, AB 2244 mandates that certain large retailers (those with more than USD10 million in gross annual sales and that offer for sale more than 25 certified items) ensure that at least three non-UPFs are “clearly identifiable” such that a “reasonable consumer” could easily distinguish foods bearing the seal from those that do not. The bill also allows injunctive relief by the CA Health Department, the Attorney General or any county or city attorney, or a “consumer, business entity, or non-profit organization.” AB 2244 has moved to the state Senate for committee hearings.

USDA announces new steps to expand domestic fertilizer production. US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has announced that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is taking steps to expand domestic fertilizer production, including accelerated permitting and reviving the 2022 Fertilizer Production Expansion Program. The goal, Rollins stated, is to boost domestic fertilizer production by about 4.5 million tons per year, thus supporting roughly 400,000 producers and 290 million acres of farmland. The actions are pursuant to President Donald Trump’s December 2025 Executive Order, "Addressing Security Risks from Price Fixing and Anti-Competitive Behavior in the Food Supply Chain," which prompted the launch of a multi-agency federal strategy designed to rebuild domestic fertilizer manufacturing and reduce America’s dependence on foreign suppliers. The Administration calls the new fertilizer initiative an “all-of-government” response to rising fertilizer costs and global supply vulnerabilities, involving not only USDA but also the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Commerce, Department of State, Treasury Department, and US Army Corps of Engineers. Rollins noted that the strategy includes fast-tracking permits for the USD4 billion Blue Point low-carbon ammonia plant in Louisiana, restarting stalled projects originally funded through the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program, and creating a new USDA economist position specifically to monitor farm input costs and fertilizer markets. Fertilizer prices are reportedly expected to remain elevated and volatile through at least 2027 as global supply disruptions continue. Meanwhile, as previously reported in DLA Piper’s monthly newsletter Inside Competition, the Department of Justice is investigating whether US fertilizer producers colluded to raise prices, with the probe focusing on both civil and criminal antitrust violations. In late May, the Federal Trade Commission launched an industry-wide investigation into the fertilizer industry's pricing practices.

Bipartisan bill would give FDA authority to destroy unsafe food imports. The House Energy and Commerce Committee recently advanced HR 2715, the Destruction of Hazardous Imports Act, with a unanimous, bipartisan 43–0 vote. If enacted, HR 2715 would authorize the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to destroy imported foods that have been refused entry into the country upon failing safety inspection. The bill is intended to prevent importers from engaging in port shopping, the practice of bypassing US border controls by re-routing contaminated or rejected goods through different US ports of entry. Currently, FDA is allowed to destroy imported medical devices and medications that fail to meet US health and safety standards, but it does not have the same authority when it comes to imported food products – a gap that the proposed legislation aims to close. Because 94 percent of all seafood consumed in the US is imported, and shrimp is the most consumed seafood in the nation, the bipartisan bill has the particular intent of stopping contaminated shrimp and seafood products from entering the US market. The bill is backed by a coalition of 16 seafood industry groups led by the Southern Shrimp Alliance, as well as the Safe Food Coalition. HR 2715 now proceeds to the full House of Representatives.

FDA revises timing of synthetic food dye phase-out. Calling the action “a generational change,” Acting Deputy Commissioner for Food Donald A. Prater stated during a recent Association of Food and Drug Officials leadership discussion that FDA has “secured commitments to eliminate petroleum-based synthetic dyes from school foods by 2026 and from the entire food supply by 2027.” FDA originally intended to see all such dyes removed from the US food supply by the end of this year. Prater’s remarks are among factors reportedly signaling that the process has slowed. For instance, FDA’s webpage “Tracking Food Industry Pledges to Remove Petroleum Based Food Dyes” now states that “FDA is working closely with food manufacturers, retailers, and trade associations to eliminate six remaining certified color additives frequently used in the food supply… by the end of 2027.”

First US cases of New World Screwworm in 60 years. New World Screwworm (NWS), last seen in the US 60 years ago, has returned. Among the latest developments:

• At this writing, USDA has confirmed five cases of the devastating parasite within the US, four in a geographic cluster in Texas and one in New Mexico. The first case was discovered on June 3 in a calf; at that point, USDA activated its NWS response playbook, including establishment of a movement-control zone; the second NWS case, in another calf, was detected within that zone on June 5. Since then, NWS larvae have been found in another calf and a goat in Texas, as well as in a dog in New Mexico.
  
  
• On June 5, Texas Governor Greg Abbott expanded his NWS disaster declaration, making additional state resources available to assist with eradication efforts. Also on June 5, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced it is temporarily restricting imports of livestock that originated in or passed through Texas within 21 days from crossing the border.
  
  
• On June 8:

• President Trump appointed John Bellinger as Senior Advisor for New World Screwworm Preparedness. Bellinger is the Co-Founder and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Food Safety Net Services, which operates ISO 17025-accredited testing laboratories across North America, and the CEO of Agri-West International and Bellinger Development.
  
  
• Speaking in Texas, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins reiterated that USDA is “going to do everything we can, investing more than a billion dollars to push this pest back into Mexico, then to eradicate, as we did about 50 years ago.” The US food supply, she said, is not at risk. The agency, she added, will soon announce the recipients of funding for innovative technologies to combat NWS.
  
  
• Rollins also affirmed that last year’s staff reductions did not affect the agency’s NWS response, stating, “There has been zero impact on this mission area, specifically to the screwworm, based on that reduction in force.” The Animal and Plant Inspection Service (APHIS) lost 1,300 employees in 2025, and a US Agency for International Development program that worked to confine screwworms to Central America was also eliminated.
  
  
• Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller reiterated his call for USDA to enhance NWS response by adding the Screwworm Adult Suppression System (SWASS), an approach last tested in the 1970s that aims to suppress NWS with bait and pesticides. Sterile flies and SWASS are most effective when used together, he stated.

• On June 9, Beef magazine noted that the outbreak’s effect on the livestock market was “triggering market volatility before futures rallied on supply concerns.” The publication predicted that the confirmed arrival of NWS in the US will “tighten an already tight supply” of beef, raising prices in the short term and, in the long term, “likely kicks the can down the road on any meaningful herd rebuilding.”

FSIS finalizes new swine inspection rule. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has finalized a rule amending post-mortem inspection for swine and transitioning primarily to visual inspection. The final rule will go into effect on July 20. The agency first proposed the rule changes in August 2025. The new regulations end mandatory mandibular lymph nodes incision and viscera palpation of swine carcasses in all swine slaughter establishments. Citing data collected from 2012 to 2023, FSIS stated that swine condemnation rates are low and that disease conditions can be effectively identified through visual observation. “Moving to a primarily visual model reduces the risk of microbial cross-contamination that can occur during manual handling,” the agency stated. FSIS inspection program personnel will retain the authority to perform manual checks if they identify a need for further investigation. This change, the agency continued, will allow FSIS more flexibility to assign inspectors based on the establishment's line configuration, other establishment operations, and FSIS staffing needs.

USDA, CDC officials discuss food safety priorities. Speaking at the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) Federal Panel Update 2026 on June 1, USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Mindy Brashears, Ph.D., highlighted agency efforts to reduce Salmonella illnesses and strengthen controls for Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat meat products. Dr. Brashears stated that FSIS is evaluating new approaches to identify the highest-risk products and the most pathogenic strains of Salmonella. She also discussed a Listeria initiative in which ready-to-eat establishments completed questionnaires about their control programs. Based on the responses, FSIS has developed a modernized approach to Listeria control that, Dr. Brashears stated, will be rolled out in the coming months. Dr. Brashears went on to note that since many establishments, particularly small and very small plants, rely primarily on environmental monitoring to control Listeria, FSIS will provide those facilities with additional resources and technical assistance. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Deputy Division Director Gwen Biggerstaff, Sc.D., M.S.P.H., discussed CDC’s foodborne illness surveillance, outbreak responses, and recent investigations, noting that a recent moringa-related outbreak helped scientists identify “a really important resistance gene that we had never identified in Salmonella before,” illustrating the connection between outbreak investigations and the CDC’s National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS). She also highlighted ongoing efforts to modernize food safety data systems and expand CDC disease response and investigation efforts, such as the Bacteria, Enterics, Amoeba, and Mycotics (BEAM) Dashboard.

Lawsuit seeks restoration of USD127 million in USDA farmland-access grants. A coalition of 24 agricultural and farming organizations filed suit on May 26 in the US District Court for the District of Columbia challenging USDA’s decision to terminate funding for 49 grants, totaling more than USD127 million, that had been issued to nonprofit organizations, farmers, ranchers, universities, cities, and states. The grants had been awarded under an array of USDA programs, such as the Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program, which works to bring new farmers onto farmland, and the Agricultural Marketing Service’s Regional Food System Partnerships Program. USDA terminated the grants, and hundreds of others, last year. The plaintiffs – such organizations as the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Kansas Black Farmers Association, and Sustainable Iowa Land Trust – state in their complaint that the agency policy of terminating these federal grant awards is unlawful and violates the plaintiffs’ right to due process as well as USDA’s own regulations. They are asking the court to vacate and set aside the USDA policy requiring the termination of such awards, undo the terminations, and prevent any future terminations resulting from these unlawful actions. This case is in the earliest stages. See the complaint here.

Agriculture organizations call for renewal of USMCA. As the required six-year review of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) approaches on July 1, nearly 160 food and agricultural organizations in the US, Canada, and Mexico have signed a joint letter, dubbed the Trilateral Agricultural Industry Letter, urging their nations’ trade representatives to renew and strengthen the trade pact. The letter was sent on June 1 to Ambassador Jamieson Greer, who is the United States Trade Representative (USTR); Canada–US Trade Representative Dominic LeBlanc; and Mexico’s Secretary of the Economy, Marcelo Ebrard. The Agricultural Coalition for USMCA, a US group of 40 farm and agricultural organizations, states that the USD1.9 trillion of goods and services traded under USMCA includes more than USD60 billion in American agricultural exports to Canada and Mexico, comprising nearly one-third of all American agricultural exports and supporting 13 million American jobs. The USMCA, which went into effect in July 2020, requires that the three countries meet on July 1, 2026 to review the agreement. All three countries must agree on a path forward, which could mean extending the agreement for another 16 years, entering a period of annual consultations, or terminating the agreement. If the countries fail to reach an agreement and move to terminate, USMCA will expire in 2036.

USDA makes changes in payment limitation and eligibility rules. USDA has finalized new payment-limit rules, effective June 2, that will give farm operations organized as limited liability companies (LLCs), S corporations (S-Corps), and other pass-through entities a clearer path to receiving farm program payments for certain commodity, disaster, and conservation programs funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation. The change implements provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 and updates long-standing Farm Service Agency (FSA) rules that had capped many entity-based operations at a single payment limit. USDA stated that, starting with the 2026 crop year, for payment eligibility purposes, FSA will treat applicable LLCs, S-Corps, and other similar entities as “pass through entities.” Each member of the qualified pass-through entity that meets certain criteria will contribute to the entity’s qualification for expanded payments. The rule change also exempts recipients of certain monies from the existing USD900,000 adjusted gross income eligibility cap. Substack’s Farm Action Policy Feed stated, “The new rules make it easier for large operations to access larger government payments.”

Lost sales from SNAP waivers may reach USD830 million this year. On May 26, a report by consumer data and technology company Numerator stated that by the end of 2026, states implementing restrictions on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) spending could see grocery sales drop approximately USD830 million overall in the categories affected by the waivers. As of late May, ten states – Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia – had implemented SNAP bans on certain foods and beverages such as candy and sugary beverages. By the end of the year, similar restrictions will go into effect in ten additional states: Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. In all, more than one-third of SNAP users will be impacted by these changes. Numerator estimated sales declines of up to USD430 million for soda, USD300 million for candy, and USD100 million for energy drinks in 2026 in states with the restrictions as SNAP households scale back purchases or redirect spending to other categories. Next year, SNAP waivers are due to take effect in Kansas and Wyoming, followed by Nevada in 2028.

Avian flu update.

• The H5N1 variant of avian influenza has resurfaced in US dairy herds. Most recently, on June 3, the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) confirmed that a milk sample from a Cache County dairy had tested positive for H5N1. This is the first confirmed outbreak in a Utah dairy operation since January 2025. In the 30 days before this writing, outbreaks have also been confirmed in dairy herds in Texas and Idaho.
  
  
• In an effort to prevent H5N1 from infecting Florida dairy herds, on June 2 Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson issued Emergency Rule 5CER26-4, imposing new testing and import restrictions on dairy cattle entering the state. The Emergency Rule also requires that lactating dairy cattle cannot enter Florida without a negative H5N1 test result and an official veterinary inspection certificate completed within seven days of importation. Those seeking to bring non-lactating dairy cattle into Florida from states with confirmed or suspected H5N1 cases must provide a veterinary inspection certificate completed within ten days of entry.
  
  
• Meanwhile, outbreaks in US commercial flocks continue to decline. In the 30 days before this writing, H5N1 has been confirmed in 24 flocks across the country, but in the past 15 days, the only confirmed outbreaks in poultry operations have been in Indiana (four) and Pennsylvania (one).
  
  
• Vaccinations of poultry for H5N1 remain in the news. In the US, and in many other countries, when H5N1 is confirmed in a flock, federal policy requires immediate depopulation of all the birds in the flock. In South Africa, where the government recently deemed that approach “outdated,” this month Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen moved to amend the Animal Diseases Regulations (R.2026 of 1986) to permit vaccination of poultry against avian influenza. The amendments put in place a formal HPAI Vaccination Framework (HPAI, or highly pathogenic avian influenza, is another term for H5N1) and clear the way for the introduction of H5N1 vaccination as part of the government’s overarching disease control strategy. That strategy reportedly would combine biosecurity measures, testing, and vaccination, and would reduce, but not eliminate, culling of affected flocks.