The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) recently launched a new web-based label approval system that streamlines the agency’s review process for meat, poultry, and egg product labels. The Label Submission Approval System (LSAS) will make it possible for food manufacturers to submit label applications electronically, will flag application submission errors that could delay the approval process, and will allow users to track the progress of their submission.

The LSAS is a “secure” web-based software application that integrates and implements an electronic label application process for establishments to submit label applications and appeals. FSIS states that the benefits of the system include:

• The ability to submit label applications, appeals, and supporting information electronically via the Internet;
• • Alerts that will notify users of errors in label applications at the time of submittal;
• The ability for establishments to track the status of label applications or appeals electronically;
• Enhanced communication mechanisms, such as messaging within LSAS, which will allow LPDD to communicate problems with labels immediately and permit the submitter to correct the issues and resubmit the labels more expeditiously;
• The ability for establishments to obtain prior approvals as well as information from label application forms, such as ingredients, processes, special claims, and other specific label related information, from an electronic database; and
• An option, called the Generic Label Advisor (GLA), to assist an establishment in determining if a label can be generically approved.