It’s my first week back at the firm, and today I was having a slow day. And since opportunities to comment on FDA food identity standards don’t come up very often… I decided to comment on FDA’s proposal to revoke the standards for frozen cherry pie. I surprised myself a little by offering a moderate defense of the the standard for frozen cherry pie. (I mean, I don’t even LIKE cherry pie!)
My main objection to the proposed revocation is that no one (including FDA) has acknowledged or explained why this regulation exists to begin with. It’s the problem known as Chesterton’s Fence: don’t tear down a fence if you don’t know why it’s there! Tear it down because you know exactly why it was put there, and why it’s not needed.
I can think of a few reasons why this particular fence might have been put there, even if regulating the quality of frozen cherry pies—but not baked cherry pies or other frozen fruit pies—is a head-scratcher at first. Read my comment to FDA to find out why.
