Photo by Oscar Mikols on Pexels.com

As reported from WebMD, I know, not exactly the authoritative source on import law. However, I checked and they are correct. On March 8th, the FDA issued a press announcement “deactiviting” an import alert from 2016. Full link to the press announcement can be found here.

Import alerts are bulletins that notify U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) of potentially dangerous foods and drugs that are prohibited from entering the US.

The 2016 import alert on genetically engineered salmon became active until the FDA finalized labeling guidelines to inform consumers the product they were consuming was genetically engineered. At that time in 2016, Congress passed a law directing the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to create a labeling standard for bioengineered food. As the USDA issued their food labeling standards in December of 2018, the FDA determined they did not have the labeling authority and as such, there is no need for the import alert.

Ironically, genetically engineered salmon is now safe for import to the US but kratom is not.