The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has determined that Kentucky has a rational basis for restricting the types of retailers that may be issued licenses to sell liquor and wine, thus ruling that the law does not violate grocers’ equal protection rights. Maxwell’s Pic-Pac, Inc. v. Dehner, Nos. 12-6056, -6057, -6182 (6th Cir., decided January 15, 2014). A state law adopted in 1939 that today prohibits the issuance of a retail drink license to “any business in which a substantial part of the commercial transaction consists of selling at retail staple groceries or gasoline and lubricating oil,” was interpreted in 1982 by the Alcohol Beverage Control Board in a regulation that defines “substantial part” (10% or greater of the monthly gross sales) and “staple groceries” (foods intended for human consumption other than soft drinks, candy, hot foods, and foods prepared for immediate consumption). Grocers challenged the restrictions on equal-protection, separation-of-powers…
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California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has issued a hazard identification document for six chemicals that will be reconsidered for listing as reproductive toxicants under Proposition 65. Used in epoxy resins or as plasticizers, the chemicals—n-butyl glycidyl ether, diglycidyl ether, phenyl glycidyl ether, methyl n-butyl ketone, methyl isopropyl ketone, and α-methyl styrene—were added to the list via the Labor Code mechanism. Changes to federal regulations affecting this listing mechanism have required that the chemicals be reconsidered. Public comments are requested by February 25, 2014, and the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee will discuss them during its March 19 meeting. Manufacturers of products containing chemicals determined to be known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity are required to provide warnings to consumers under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65). See OEHHA News Release, January 10, 2014. Issue…
The European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA’s) Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA) has launched a public consultation for its draft scientific opinion on dietary reference values for iodine. Using data from “a large epidemiological study in European school-aged children showing that goiter prevalence is lowest for a urinary iodine concentration ≥ 100 μg/L,” NDA has proposed setting adequate intake (AI) levels for iodine at 150 μg/day for adults and between 70 μg/day and 130 μg/day for infants aged 7-11 months and all children. The panel has also recommended an AI of 200 μg/day for pregnant and lactating women, which takes into account “the additional needs due to increased maternal thyroid hormone production and the iodine uptake by the fetus, placenta and amniotic fluid” as well as “the existence of large iodine stores in conditions of adequate iodine status before pregnancy.” EFSA will accept comments on the draft scientific…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued two final guidance documents for industry on distinguishing liquid dietary supplements from beverages. Titled “Distinguishing Liquid Dietary Supplements From Beverages” and “Considerations Regarding Substances Added to Foods, Including Beverages and Dietary Supplements,” the documents update 2009 draft guidance intended “to help dietary supplement and beverage manufacturers determine whether a liquid food product is properly classified as a dietary supplement or as a beverage, and to remind the industry of legal requirements regarding the substances that may be added to either type of product.” In “Distinguishing Liquid Dietary Supplements from Beverages,” FDA describes the factors characterizing liquid products deemed dietary supplements and those characterizing beverages deemed conventional foods. These include product claims, names, packaging, serving size, recommended daily intake, conditions of use, and product composition, as well as statements or graphic representations in labeling, advertising and other marketing practices, including promotional websites,…
More than 200 organizations, farms, grocers, individuals, and consumer and environmental rights organizations have submitted a letter to President Barack Obama (D) reminding him of his 2007 pledge “to give consumers the right to know if their food is genetically engineered (GE).” Claiming that 93 percent of Americans share his view, they call on the president to fulfill his commitment and establish a mandatory national labeling system. Among those signing the letter are the Center for Food Safety, As You Sow, Consumers Union, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, and food companies including Eden Foods, Rudi’s, Amy’s Kitchen, Ben & Jerry’s, and Stonyfield Farm. See Center for Food Safety Press Release, January 16, 2014.
A recent animal study has allegedly identified a new immunological connection between obesity and asthma involving “inflammasome activation and production of cytokine interleukin-17 by innate lymphoid cells in the lung,” according to a concurrent editorial published in Nature Medicine. Hye Young Kim, et al., “Interleukin-17-producing innate lymphoid cells and the NLRP3 inflammasome facilitate obesity-associated airway hyperreactivity,” Nature Medicine, January 2014. After studying mice that were raised on a high-fat diet until they became obese and developed asthma, researchers with Boston Children’s Hospital apparently reported that “obesity appeared to alter the innate immune system—the body’s first responder to infection—in several ways to cause lung inflammation.” In particular, they noted that, compared with non-obese mice, “the lungs of the obese, asthmatic mice had several differences”: (i) “High levels of the protein interleukin 17A (IL17A), a cytokine (signaling molecule) associated with several inflammatory conditions”; (ii) “Increased numbers of the immune cells that produce…
A recent systematic review of the current scientific literature “assigning obesity to the spectrum of neuropsychological diseases” has proposed “an integrative model” for understanding obesity not simply as a “deliberately flawed food intake behavior with the consequence of dysbalanced energetic uptake and expenditure,” but as a complex condition “linked to neurobio- logical and psychological aspects such as mood status, addictive behavior, motivation and reward processing as well as coping with psychosocial stress.” Kamila Jauch-Chara and Kerstin Oltmanns, “Obesity – A neuropsychological disease? Systematic review and neuropsychological model,” Progress in Neurobiology, January 2014. To this end, the reviewers highlight obesity research concluding, among other things, that (i) “chronic stress enhances food intake,” with both humans and animals choosing energy dense foods “to blunt their stress responses”; (ii) “food intake activates the reward circuitry” in the brain, increasing dopamine concentrations that correlate “positively with the rating of food pleasantness in humans”; and…
After analyzing reporting biases for 17 systematic reviews (SRs) assessing the association between sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and weight gain, EU researchers have allegedly concluded that financial conflicts of interest may influence the outcomes of such studies. Maira Bes-Rastrollo, et al., “Financial Conflicts of Interest and Reporting Bias Regarding the Association between Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Weight Gain: A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews,” PLoS Medicine, December 2013. Selected from PubMed, Cochrane Library and Scopus databases, the SRs under scrutiny were classified as either finding a positive association between SSB consumption and weight gain or finding no association at all. “Among those reviews without any reported conflict of interest, 83.3% of the conclusions (10/12) were that SSB consumption could be a potential risk factor for weight gain,” report the study’s authors. “In contrast, the same percentage of conclusions, 83.3% (5/6), of those SRs disclosing some financial conflict of interest with the food…
York University researchers have published a qualitative study examining “how obese women with and without binge eating disorder (BED) experience overeating in relation to the DSM-5 [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual] symptoms of addiction.” Claire Curtis & Caroline Davis, “A Qualitative Study of Binge Eating and Obesity From an Addiction Perspective,” Eating Disorders, January 2014. According to the study, the recently-published DSM-5 includes a new category for “Addiction and Related Disorders” that addresses “both substance use disorders (SUDs) and non-substance addictions” in addition to providing new diagnostic guidelines. Using these expanded criteria, the authors interviewed 12 obese women with BED and 12 without BED, concluding that “both groups of women endorsed DSM-5 SUD criteria (in relation to food) in their narratives,” although there were “visible qualitative differences in how the women experienced these symptoms.” More specifically, Curtis and Davis reported that while both groups expressed a desire to reduce their food…
A recent New York Times article highlights how groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest as well as individual consumers have harnessed the power of social media to bring their concerns directly to food companies. Titled “Social Media as a Megaphone to Pressure the Food Industry,” the article describes several instances in which consumer-backed petitions circulated on Facebook, Twitter or other platforms have purportedly influenced food company policies, resulting in product reformulations or labeling changes. Speaking with one spokesperson for Kraft Foods Group, Times writer Stephanie Strohm specifically notes that one of the challenges facing companies “when confronted by consumers demanding change is getting them to understand how complicated that change can be ... Food companies must work with suppliers to determine what’s possible, then supplies have to make the new ingredient in bulk.” These changes can also involve regulators if replacement ingredients require approval for…
