U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) have introduced the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510), which would expand and strengthen the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) authority to address the safety of the nation’s food supply. The proposal, which has reportedly attracted the support of industry and consumer groups alike, would increase the frequency of food plant inspections, expand FDA’s access to records, give the agency the authority to recall tainted food products, and require the creation of a national strategy to protect the food supply from terrorist threats and intentional contamination. Originally introduced in July 2008 with many of the same sponsors, the bill would require all food facilities to have HACCP plans in effect and allow the FDA to suspend the registration of any food facility that “has a reasonable probability of causing serious adverse health consequences or…
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Health Canada has published the results of a survey it conducted to detect and measure levels of bisphenol A (BPA) in canned beverages such as soft drinks, tea and energy drinks. The federal agency detected the chemical in nearly all of the samples tested, with some of the highest levels appearing in energy drinks containing caffeine. Health Canada scientists detected no BPA in two tonic water products and one energy drink product. According to the survey, “It is believed that quinine hydrochloride, which is commonly used as a bittering agent in tonic type drinks, may interfere with BPA extraction.” While the levels found in the beverages were below regulatory limits, some scientists are reportedly concerned that the large number of sources of exposure may pose cumulative risks to human health. University of Missouri biologist Frederick vom Saal contends that harmful effects of the chemical, which mimics the effects of estrogen in…
A recent study has reportedly compared long-term teen obesity risks to those incurred by smokers. Martin Neovius, et al., “Combined effects of overweight and smoking in late adolescence on subsequent mortality: nationwide cohort study,” British Medical Journal, February 24, 2009. After examining the death rates of 45,920 Swedish servicemen over 38 years, researchers found that recruits who were obese in 1969 and 1970 were twice as likely to die by age 60 than those who had a normal body mass index between 25 and 29.9. Obese men thus experienced an increase in risk the same as that of normal-weight men who smoked half a pack of cigarettes or more per day. The study results also suggested that overweight recruits were approximately one-third more likely to die prematurely, a risk profile similar to that of normal-weight men who smoked 10 cigarettes per day. Although one expert from Emory University’s Rollins School of…
“The plants in Texas and Georgia that were sending out contaminated peanut butter and ground peanut products had something else besides rodent infestation, mold and bird droppings. They also had federal organic certification,” opines this article examining a marketplace perception that organic food is both healthier and safer than conventional products. The authors suggest that a convoluted organic certification program has subverted an organic ethos “built on purity and trust . . . between the farmer and the customer.” With fees sometimes exceeding thousands of dollars, manufacturers are apparently dependent on a “web of agents” sponsored by those farmers and operations seeking certification. “A private certifier took nearly seven months to recommend that the USDA revoke the organic certification of the peanut company’s Georgia plant, and then did so only after the company was in the thick of a massive recall,” states the article, which notes that agents are required…
“An examination of the largest food poisoning outbreaks in recent years – in products as varied as spinach, pet food, and a children’s snack, Veggie Booty – show that auditors failed to detect problems at plants whose contaminated products later sickened consumers,” claims this article exploring the role of private inspectors in the current food safety system. The authors point to the recent Salmonella outbreak linked to a Peanut Corp. of America (PCA) plant in southwest Georgia. According to a March 27, 2008, internal audit obtained by The New York Times, the operation received a food safety rating of “superior” from a third-party inspector hired by PCA to verify plant conditions on behalf of the Kellogg Co. and other food companies supplied by the peanut processor. “Federal investigators later discovered that the dilapidated plant was ravaged by Salmonella and had been shipping tainted peanuts and paste for at least nine months,” opines…
As the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) unveiled tougher Listeria-testing rules for ready-to-eat meat manufacturing facilities at the end of February 2009, one of the federal government’s food safety advisors reportedly claimed that the rules do not go far enough for large operations. The tougher rules resulted from last summer’s listeriosis outbreak that purportedly led to the deaths of 20 Canadians and was traced to ready-to-eat meats produced at a Maple Leaf plant in Toronto. The company reportedly cited the build up of Listeria “deep inside” two slicing machines as the most likely source. Under the new rules, effective April 1, operators producing deli meats and hot dogs must (i) begin testing food-contact surfaces up to once a week per line; (ii) look for trends in the results to catch potential problems; (iii) report all positive tests immediately to agency inspectors, who will be required to increase the frequency of…
According to a news source, the executive vice president of China’s highest court has indicated that the courts will begin accepting the paperwork filed by parents who decided not to participate in the government’s compensation plan for injuries allegedly suffered by children who consumed melamine-tainted milk products. Court official Shen Deyong reportedly said in an online interview, “The courts have done the preparation work and will accept the compensation cases at any time.” He also reportedly indicated that more than 95 percent of the 300,000 victims’ families had accepted compensation. An organizer for those who held out said that hundreds are prepared to file individual claims, many of which the courts previously refused. Under China’s legal system, the courts must first accept the paperwork and then decide whether to act on the claims by opening an investigation or rejecting them. See Associated Press, March 3, 2009.
An Italian magistrate has reportedly determined that Nestlé Italia and Tetra Pak International are liable for the “psychological prejudice” of parents who gave their daughters milk purportedly contaminated with chemicals from the carton. The milk was apparently withdrawn from sale in France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy in late 2005, over concerns about the leaching of IsopropilThioXantone, a chemical used in printing on the cartons, into the dairy product. Millions of liters of liquid baby milk were reportedly recalled, and a consumers’ organization indicates that the latest ruling is the first in Italy since the product was withdrawn from the market. See Agence France Presse, March 2, 2009.
Since it was filed in 2002, the lawsuit filed by a putative class of teenagers alleging obesity-related injury purportedly caused by reliance on deceptive advertising for fast food has been appealed twice to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and is now before its third trial court judge. Pelman v. McDonald’s Corp., No. 02-7821 (S.D.N.Y., filed Sept. 30, 2002). The case was reassigned to Judge Kimba Wood on February 27, 2009. Judge Wood was one of former President Bill Clinton’s picks for attorney general, but withdrew from consideration after questions were raised about the immigrants she had hired as household help. Nominated to the federal court bench in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan, the Harvard-educated jurist has served as chief judge of her district since 2006.
A federal court has granted the meat industry’s motion for a preliminary injunction and ordered California not to enforce a law, adopted on January 1, 2009, that would have required the immediate euthanization of nonambulatory animals in slaughterhouses regulated by the Federal Meat Inspection Act. Nat’l Meat Ass’n v. Brown, No. 08-1963 (E.D. Cal., decided February 19, 2009). The court found that the plaintiffs had a strong likelihood of success on the merits of their claim that the state law is expressly and impliedly preempted by the federal statute and that they were likely to suffer irreparable harm because some proscribed conduct is punishable by criminal fines and the state is immune from paying for other potential monetary losses. Balancing the public interests involved, the court found that the safety of the public food supply and the humane treatment of animals are adequately protected by the federal law. According to a…
