The Food and Drug Administration has issued an interim final rule, effective July 16, 2008, which will allow cattle-derived materials from negligible risk countries to be excluded from the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) - related prohibition on the use of such materials in human food (including dietary supplements) and cosmetics.

The Food and Drug Administration has issued a notice announcing that it will hold a public hearing on antimicrobial resistance on April 28, 2008 in Rockville, MD.

Better Wii and DS hardware supplies helped those systems again finish as the top sellers in the U.S. for March, NPD data released Thursday show. Wii, swapping places with DS from February (CED March 17 p6), became No. 1, selling about 721,000 units -- more than rivals PS3 and Xbox 360 combined.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued a press release announcing that, effective March 28, 2008, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Mexico's Secretara de Agricultura, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have established protocols for the export of U.S. and Canadian cattle to Mexico.

The Food and Drug Administration has issued an April 2008 guidance for industry, which summarizes the required statements that must appear on food labels under federal laws governing food products under FDA's jurisdiction and their regulations.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has issued a final rule, effective May 2, 2008, that will amend 9 CFR Part 94 to state that uncooked pork or pork products that originated in a region considered to be free of classical swine fever (CSF) and are processed in a region where CSF exists may be imported into the U.S. under certain conditions.

The Office of U.S. Trade Representative has released its 2008 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE), which is an annual report documenting foreign trade and investment barriers and U.S. actions to reduce and eliminate those barriers.

The Food and Drug Administration has issued a notice requesting comments on the existence and use of voluntary third-party certification programs for food and feed (including pet food).

The Food and Drug Administration has issued (1) an updated document that provides a country-by-country list of the number of food facilities registered with the FDA as of January 29, 2008, and (2) a final rule that updates the fax numbers for food facility registration.

The International Trade Commission has issued a limited exclusion order on court-ordered remand with respect to five patents against the infringing products of Dominant Semiconductors Sdn. Bhd. in its section 337 patent-based investigation of certain light-emitting diodes and products containing same.