USDA amends temporary permits for tuna canners

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — In an agency notice dated Dec. 21 and publicly released this month, the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it’s amending temporary permits issued to Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, and StarKist Seafood Co. to market test canned tuna.

The FDA noted previous amendments made to the two companies permits going back to 2014 were last amended earlier this year.

Under the new notice, FDA said temporary permits issued to Bumble Bee Foods now allow the test product to be manufactured at one additional plant location in Mexico.

For StarKist, the federal agency is amending the temporary permit to increase the amount of test product to be market tested to 217,900,000 pounds in retail cans of various sizes and to allow the test product to be manufactured at one additional plant in the country of Senegal.

All other conditions and terms of the permits remain the same, it says. It also says that these amendments will allow the applicants to continue to test market the test product and collect data on consumer acceptance.

Background details of previously issued amendments is available on the government portal (www.regulations.gov).