By Phil Kafarakis, IFMA President & CEO
October 2024
- Election rhetoric focused on enormous tariff increases and pricing controls on food products continues to escalate economic uncertainty on food company earnings and consumer behavior.
- Congress continues to advance legislation impacting key areas of the food system supply-chain including product traceability, sustainable packaging, and child nutrition.
- Full compliance of FSMA204 is on track for January 20, 2026. The law was signed in 2011 and is intended to protect consumers by improving transparency and accountability within the food industry ecosystem.
- USDA has heightened concerns regarding consumer protections against food recalls given the recent class action lawsuit brought by a consumer against Boar's Head Provisions Co. for alleged deceptive practices (not properly informing consumers of listeria contamination).
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IFMA is not a “policy shop,” we don’t have lobbyists, a public policy agenda, or ever contribute to a campaign or PAC. When you represent an industry as large and diverse as food away from home, it’s nearly impossible to do it all and we’ve chosen our lane. IFMA is the place where everyone in our industry can come together to discuss common concerns, learn about upcoming trends and opportunities, and collaborate to address cross-industry challenges.
We applaud our sister organizations that focus on working with local and national government. Many coordinate industry responses to critical legislative issues. Those efforts are important to all of us, and we recognize the necessity of that work. In fact, we’re hoping to increase our information-sharing efforts to include more on industry action on any legislation or regulation aimed at food away from home.
We keep an eye on developments that touch on our industry’s interests, and no matter what the outcome of this year’s election, we encourage you to become better informed on important legislative activities. Even as election campaigning has been heating up, Congress has stayed busy advancing legislation that will ultimately impact your business operations, such as:
- Implications of the Food Labeling Modernization Act of 2023
- Dietary mandates for public school
- National and state moves to regulate packaging sustainability
As engaged business leaders, let’s keep in mind that policy issues beyond those directly impacting our companies also deserve our attention. The National Restaurant Association numbers foodservice employees at 15.5 million nationwide. That’s just a portion of the overall industry. Helping to maintain our workforce is equal to maintaining our bottom line. That makes the net of issues that we should stay aware of even larger. Keeping our teams happily employed is integral to our companies, but understanding that individuals need available housing, fair taxation, affordable public transportation, and a host of other things to thrive is incumbent on us as business leaders.
Some issues we know will quickly heat up after the new Administration and Congress are in place next January – changes to current tariffs come to mind. As always, others will likely pop up unexpectedly. We’ll do our best to keep you informed through vehicles like this newsletter.
Research Schedule Table
Election 2024 Implications
| Item |
Description |
Democratic Administration |
Republican Administration |
| 2024 Farm Bill (H.R. 8467) |
Agriculture subsidies and nutrition programs (SNAP) impact quantities of ingredients and finished goods purchased by schools.
Sales and volume implications for manufacturers.
|
- Depth of funding impact.
- Support expanding food assistance.
|
- Depth of funding impact.
- General favor of reduced government intervention.
|
| Food Safety Regulations |
Degree and level of regulation and compliance action by FDA & USDA agencies on manufacturers. Investment in food safety/product traceability and increased QA, as well as compliance costs. |
May push for more stringent standards and increase funding for more agency compliance. |
May favor deregulation, reduced oversight, and easing of restrictions. |
| Food Labeling Modernization Act |
Addresses incremental labeling requirements. Imposes labeling requirements for certain foods that contain added coloring, added flavoring, phosphorus, caffeine, gluten, allulose, polydextrose, sugar alcohols, or isolated fibers. |
Likely support given favor of stricter regulations on food safety and consumer transparency. |
Most likely will prioritize deregulation and a more lenient approach to implementation (scaling back provisions). |
| Extended Producer Responsibility (ERP) |
Environmental policy that makes manufacturers responsible for the entire lifecycle of products they produce, including post-consumption stage prior to becoming waste. |
- No federal law has been fully enacted.
- Congress is gaining interest given individual state legislation passed (Oregon, California, Maine).
- Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act does have ERP provisions.
|
| Childhood Diabetes Reduction Act of 2024 |
Proposed legislation aimed at addressing rising rates of childhood obesity. Targets ultra-processed foods and sugar-sweetened beverages. Seeks to limit junk food advertising. |
- In the early stages of legislative debate (introduced in Senate April 18, 2024).
- Key component is adding strong warning labels to identified foods.
- Measures already in place in Canada and Chile.
|
We at IFMA will do our part to help you follow the issues most relevant to our industry. For instance, IFMA has joined a coalition of eight organizations to enhance industry-wide awareness of the FDA's Food Traceability Rule, which implements Section 204(d) of the U.S. FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). You may read more about that here.
We encourage you to keep an eye on the local and national regulations and policies that will impact your teams and your customers. It’s a complicated world and we need to view it through more than a set of balance sheets.
Even in acknowledging an undeniable level of uncertainty, we look forward to 2025 and all we hope to accomplish together.