On August 1, 2018, the Center for Food Safety filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) for its delay in the establishment of a national mandatory bioengineered (BE) food disclosure standard. In its lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that AMS’ failure to implement a final rule is “inimical to the democratic process” and damaging to the public and stakeholders. On May 4, 2018, USDA announced a request for comments on the proposed new rule under the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 on the establishment of a national mandatory BE food disclosure standard. The proposed rule would require food manufacturers and labelers to unveil information to consumers about BE foods. The notice also included a request for comments on AMS’ intent to request approval by the Office of Management and Budget for information collection on the proposed BE disclosure standard. Comments on this proposed rule were due on July 3, 2018, with a final ruling to be made on or before July 29, 2018, according to the 2016 Public Law 114-216. AMS received over 14,000 comments out of which USDA staff claim to still be sorting through, meaning a final ruling has not yet been made and many entities are not happy about this.

[View source.]