Food Regulatory

Fortune 100 companies, emerging start-ups, trade associations, and investor and life science companies turn to Perkins Coie to receive strategic and tailored food regulatory advice across the breadth of products regulated by the FDA, USDA and TTB.

Our Food and Beverage team, renowned for our close monitoring of regulatory and litigation trends provide comprehensive and business savvy counsel from farm to fork.

We cover federal laws and regulations that impose stringent requirements on the safety of conventional food and beverage, dietary supplements, infant formula and baby food, pet food and animal feed, medical foods, and novel foods. We additionally offer deep experience regarding state laws like Proposition 65 and the emerging patchwork of state laws covering PFAS, food additive bans, labeling and more.

Perkins Coie has a respected team of practitioners with a strong track record of advising clients on FDA regulations. The team boasts notable experience handling complex class action litigation issues, including advertising and labeling disputes and claims under the FDCA. It is often called upon to advise on matters related to current market trends, such as cultivated meat and precision fermentation.”

– Chambers USA 2024, Food & Beverages: Regulatory & Litigation

How we help clients

Navigating complex federal, state and global requirements for food, beverage, and dietary supplement products
Regulatory counseling to facilitate commercialization of various food tech innovations
Providing SNAP, WIC, and TANF guidance

Areas of Focus

FDA & USDA Regulation

Our food regulatory lawyers have deep experience in navigating the breadth of complex federal, state and global requirements for food, beverage, and dietary supplement products, providing advice regarding:

Alcoholic Beverages
CBD
FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)
FDA GRAS notification and self-GRAS strategy and preparation
FDA warning letters and USDA Notices of Intended Enforcement
Food Tech and Novel Foods
Government enforcement actions
Import and export
Inspections
Labeling requirements
Manufacturing and handling facilities
New dietary ingredient notification preparation and submission
Packaging
Permissible ingredients
Recalls and crisis management
Supply chain
USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) ingredient suitability assessments
USDA new technology reviews

Food Tech Regulation

Federal regulations are continuously adapting as new technologies are developed in the food space. Our food regulatory lawyers have extensive experience in developing strategies to commercialize a range of food tech innovations, including transgenic crops and alternative proteins, like plant-based meat analogues; cultivated meat; and fermentation-derived dairy (and other) ingredients. Our team includes a former regulator at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), whose experience and key relationships with decision-makers allows us to counsel clients on strategic considerations around engagement with and advocacy before USDA and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on numerous complex issues, including those of first impression. Our lawyers advise clients on matters such as research and development (R&D) and commercialization on all areas of regulatory concern and collaborate seamlessly with our Perkins Coie colleagues to assist you in parallel with related intellectual property (IP), trade secrets, corporate financing, advertising, and more as a full-service international practice.

We have provided strategic regulatory counseling to facilitate commercialization of various food tech innovations, such as:

Cultivated meat
Precision fermentation
Molecular farming
Sugar reduction

SNAP, WIC, and TANF Guidance

Our team provides strategic advice to national retailers on USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Our lawyers also counsel clients on the HHS Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program requirements regarding the sale of food and beverage products, including special program requirements for online retailers.

Recent experience in this area includes:

Providing tailored guidance on obtaining SNAP equal treatment waivers.
Undertaking a 50-state survey of state-level TANF Cash EBT sales restrictions.
Assessing WIC policies regarding recalled food products.

Our Team

View full team

Brian P. Sylvester

Partner

BSylvester@perkinscoie.com

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202.434.1669

Client Quote

Chambers USA 2024, Food & Beverages: Regulatory & Litigation

Perkins Coie has a respected team of practitioners with a strong track record of advising clients on FDA regulations. The team boasts notable experience handling complex class action litigation issues, including advertising and labeling disputes and claims under the FDCA. It is often called upon to advise on matters related to current market trends, such as cultivated meat and precision fermentation.

Publication

Food & Consumer Packaged Goods Litigation Year in Review 2023

The report offers a summary of the past year’s key litigation outcomes, regulatory developments, and filing data using metrics from our proprietary database, accompanied by infographics, developed by our food and consumer packaged goods (CPG) litigation team in order to track and understand trends in this growing area, including legal trends in cannabis.