A federal magistrate in Florida has denied the plaintiffs’ request in multidistrict litigation challenging marketing claims that DHA Omega-3-fortified milk supports brain health to reconsider an earlier order excluding the testimony of their expert. In re Horizon Organic Milk Plus DHA Omega-3 Mktg. & Sales Practice Litig., MDL No. 2324 (S.D. Fla., order entered June 17, 2014). Details about the magistrate’s ruling excluding the plaintiffs’ expert appear in Issue 522 of this Update. The magistrate rejected the plaintiffs’ arguments for their failure to raise them when the motion to exclude the evidence was before him and determined that an intervening U.S. Food and Drug Administration final nutrient content rule on DHA is not new evidence and does not address the ground on which the magistrate struck the expert—his failure to show how the studies on which he relied could be extrapolated to cover the broad class of product purchasers. Issue…
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In a unanimous vote, the California Senate has voted to repeal a new provision in the health code requiring restaurant workers to wear gloves when handling food. The provision took effect in January 2014 throughout California with a compliance grace period set to end in July 2014. The measure was intended to curb foodborne illness, but restaurant industry workers petitioned to repeal the provision, arguing that hand washing is as effective as wearing gloves without the added financial or environmental cost. They also suggested that gloves would add a false sense of security because, according to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gloved workers were less likely than ungloved workers to wash their hands when they should. Assemblyman Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), author of the bill to repeal the provision, was quoted as saying, “It is the industry standard in restaurants to prioritize cleanliness when handling food,…
The European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA’s) Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) has issued a scientific opinion on the risk posed by Salmonella and norovirus in fresh and frozen berries. According to BIOHAZ, which reviewed the limited data pertaining to the prevalence of these foodborne pathogens in berries, the risk factors for contamination are likely to include environmental conditions, contact with animal reservoirs and insufficiently treated compost, the use of contaminated water for irrigation or chemical applications, and cross-contamination by harvesters, food handlers or equipment. To mitigate these risks, BIOHAZ urges primary producers to implement Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) systems as well as Good Agricultural Practices, Good Hygiene Practices and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). More specifically, the scientific opinion identifies Norovirus in frozen raspberries and strawberries as “an emerging public health risk,” stressing the need for additional data to develop microbiological criteria for improved control of norovirus in…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published a report that attributes the loss of approximately 2.5 million years of potential life, one in 10 deaths of working-aged adults and $223.5 billion in health-care and productivity costs annually to excessive drinking. The study examined data from CDC’s Alcohol-Related Disease Impact application for 2006 to 2010 to calculate the number of deaths that could be attributed to alcohol based on a list of 54 alcohol-related causes, including immediate deaths due to, for example, alcohol poisoning, as well as deaths from alcohol-related diseases like liver cirrhosis. The researchers focused especially on excessive alcohol use, defined as binge drinking (on a per-occasion standard), heavy drinking (on a drinks-per-week standard), pregnant drinking, and drinking by minors. “This analysis illustrates the magnitude and variability of the health consequences of excessive alcohol consumption in the United States,” the researchers conclude. "More widespread implementation of…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released its final guidance on the use of nanotechnology in food as well as draft guidance on use of the technology in animal food. Rather than categorically judging nanotech as either safe or harmful, the agency indicated that it will consider specific characteristics of products with nanotech as they are produced. Among FDA’s nonbinding recommendations are encouragement for food manufacturers’ considerations of composition, safety and regulatory status as well as assurance that the guidance does not change the status of products already generally recognized as safe. The agency also recommends that manufacturers assess whether their implementation of nanotech will change their safety and regulatory status by determining what the physiochemical changes of the food product may be and invites consultations with the FDA about those determinations. “Our goal remains to ensure transparent and predictable regulatory pathways, grounded in the best available science,…
Reps. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) have introduced the Pathogens Reduction and Testing Reform Act, which would require the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to issue food recalls for meat contaminated with antibiotic-resistant pathogens such as Salmonella. Citing better protections for consumers and past deference to voluntary recalls as support for their bill, the lawmakers argue in a prepared statement that “USDA has failed to recall meat contaminated with antibiotic-resistant pathogens because they do not believe they have the legal authority to do so. This bill would ensure there is no confusion.” The measure would require USDA to recall meat, poultry and egg products contaminated by illness-causing pathogens resistant to two or more classes of antibiotics commonly used to treat human illnesses. See The Washington Post, June 25, 2014. Issue 528
New York Times op-ed writer Mark Bittman, in a column titled “Parasites, Killing Their Host,” considers how “‘Big Food’ is unwittingly destroying its own market. Diet-related Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease disable and kill people, and undoubtedly we’ll be hearing more about nonalcoholic steatophepatitis, or NASH, an increasingly prevalent fatty liver disease that’s brought on by diet and may lead to liver failure.” He refers to recently published research by a George Washington University associate professor of sociology discussing how corporations have adopted a strategy to increase their legitimacy in the “community” effort to address the obesity epidemic and thus continue to sell products that promote ill health. Bittman concludes, “government’s rightful role is not to form partnerships with industry so that the latter can voluntarily ‘solve’ the problem, but to oversee and regulate industry. Its mandate is to protect public health, and one good step toward fulfilling that…
A consortium of more than 400 food manufacturers and retailers, the Consumer Goods Forum, has built on a 2011 pledge to clarify nutrition labeling and to advertise only those products fulfilling specific nutritional criteria to children younger than 12. The new pledge further defined the goals by setting deadlines; both reforms are to be completed by 2018, and by 2016, each member company will make its internal policies on nutrition and product formulation available to the public. The forum’s board of directors also established an independent scientific advisory council that will conduct a comprehensive survey of members’ progress toward the forum’s goals. See Consumer Goods Forum, June 18, 2014.
The sale of hot dogs described as “Kosher Style” by Five Guys Enterprises LLC may violate a Washington state law that describes what food products may be labeled kosher, according to a blogger for George Washington Law Professor Jonathan Turley’s blog. Darren Smith, a former deputy sheriff in Washington, writes that Five Guys advertises one of its products as a “Kosher Style” hot dog because, according to the company’s website, “the dogs are cooked on the same grill as our burgers,” even though “the way we cook them and serve them is not [kosher].” This label may violate Washington’s RCW 69.90.020(1), which states, “No person may knowingly sell or offer for sale any food product represented as ‘kosher’ or ‘kosher style’ when that person knows that the food product is not kosher and when the representation is likely to cause a prospective purchaser to believe that it is kosher,” with…
Public Health attorney and author Michele Simon has issued a report titled “Whitewashed: How Industry and Government Promote Dairy Junk Foods.” According to Simon, dairy foods have gotten “a pass” as the public health community focuses on “obvious culprits such as soft drinks and fast food” to address the nation’s “public health epidemic due to poor diet.” The report explains how plain liquid milk consumption has fallen in the United States and been replaced by its consumption as flavored milk, with cereal or in a drink. Simon claims that today half of the milk supply makes 9 billion pounds of cheese and 1.5 billion gallons of frozen desserts, such as ice cream, and 11 percent of all sugar is used in dairy product production. She refers to these products as “dairy junk foods” loaded with saturated fat, sugar and salt. The report focuses on the government’s collection of industry fees…
