While it likely won’t affect many cigar manufacturers, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has expanded its six-month extension to deadlines for manufacturers to register ingredients with the agency to include all companies.
In October, the agency announced it would delay the deadlines six months because of hurricanes and wildfires in areas including parts of Florida, Texas and California as well as the Dominican Republic. Those geographic areas likely covered most manufacturers, but now it will apply to all manufacturers.
FDA blamed technical issues with its online database system as the reason for the extension.
This now means, the deadlines are:
- May 8, 2018 for most manufacturers
- Nov. 8, 2018 for small-scale manufacturers
Small-scale are companies that generate less than $5 million in annual revenue and have less than 150 employees.
Manufacturers were originally expected to submit these listings in March of this year before a series of delays began pushing it back.