Comment - 22059 - Scantrust

Regarding of the OEHHA Proposition 65, with particular regard to Topic 6: Simplifying language regarding retailers’ responsibility to give manufacturer warnings to the public, Section 25600.2(e), and Topic 7: Adding QR codes as a warning method, the packaging and label industry has been complying with ingredient and component disclosures in the U.S. and in other countries such that the following advice, educated by that experience and by recent U.S. regulation regarding mandatory disclosure of harmful substances is valuable. The distinction between the retail seller and the manufacturer has been made in the Proposition 65 such that the suggestion that retailers also have a responsibility for disclosure of harmful substances should result in responsibility for retailer disclosure. The spirit of investigating simplifying the language of the disclosures and putting the burden on retailers is obviously to better inform consumers. Informing consumers in simplified terms is not possible without a robust system that puts the majority of the burden on manufacturers. This can be accomplished with a lot-level traceability system, especially as the proposition overtly states that retailers are sometimes one and the same as the manufacturers but in the case of retailers they may not be able to ascertain the existence of harmful substances, ingredients, or components wherein they are responsible for adding a statement of the possibility of existence. This approach increases the burden unduly on non-manufacturing retailers and does not necessarily ensure better decisions and protection of consumers. Lot-level traceability with requirements for identified harmful substances or allergens, delivered by a QR code on the product that would cover brick and mortar disclosure and to be made available online for any online sales, would accomplish this. A very similar scheme has been proposed by the U.S. FDA with the Food and Safety Modernization Act for the purpose of avoiding and mitigating health emergencies. In that scheme, simplified, easy to understand terms together with lot-traceability that requires a lot-level documentation for all shipments from manufacturing to retailers benefits consumers and redistributes the burden in a less hopeful, more effective way.