The Council of Better Business Bureaus’ National Advertising Division (NAD), which serves as the investigative arm of the advertising industry’s voluntary self-regulation program, has recommended that Heartland Sweeteners cease making some claims about its Ideal® sweetener product. The recommendation apparently followed a complaint by Merisant Co., a Heartland competitor, that Ideal® is not “natural” or “more than 99 percent natural” as the company claims because the majority of its sweetness comes from the artificial sweetener sucralose. While Heartland agreed that its sweetener contains sucralose, the company contends that the natural sweetener Xylitol is the product’s main ingredient. According to NAD, Ideal® as a whole may be “more than 99% natural,” but “the context in which it is presented may still cause it to convey a message that is false or misleading to consumers.” NAD found that the product’s sweetness is “not due primarily to Xylitol, but, rather, the synthetic sucralose it…
Category Archives Issue 335
A recent study has reportedly linked the consumption of animal protein to an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Ivonne Sluij, et al., “ Dietary Intake of Total, Animal, and Vegetable Protein and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-NL Study,” Diabetes Care, January 2010. Using data from 38,094 participants in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-NL study, researchers apparently examined the association among diabetes incidence and dietary intake of vegetable and animal proteins. The study claims that diabetes risk increased 30 percent for every 5 percent of calories consumed from animal protein at the expense of carbohydrates or fat. According to the authors, “Our findings also suggest a similar association for total protein itself instead of only animal sources... This finding indicates that accounting for protein content in dietary recommendations for diabetes prevention may be useful.” See…
A recent study has reportedly linked dry food containing low amounts of carbohydrates to increased acrylamide levels. Edoardo Capuano, et al., “Lipid oxidation promotes acrylamide formation in fat-rich model systems,” Food Research International, (January 2010). Sponsored by the European Science Foundation, researchers formulated a range of fat-rich model systems and then measured acrylamide levels after heating. Results apparently showed that the degree of fat oxidation significantly influenced the presence of acrylamide, a chemical by product of some high-temperature cooking processes that has been linked to cancer in laboratory rats. According to the study’s abstract, foods formulated with antioxidants such as catechins and certain oils reduced acrylamide levels particularly in fat-rich, sugar-free foods “presumably by trapping carbohydrates and/or preventing lipid oxidation. More acrylamide was formed in model systems composed with sunflower oil than in those containing palm oil which is less susceptible to oxidation.” The abstract noted that acrylamide formation was…
In this article, Slate contributor James McWilliams questions “the conventional wisdom among culinary tastemakers” that pasture-raised cattle does not harbor E. coli O157:H7 at the same levels as conventional livestock. “In fact,” he writes, “exploring the connection between grass-fed beef and these dangerous bacteria offers a disturbing lesson in how culinary wisdom becomes foodie dogma and how foodie dogma can turn into a recipe for disaster.” McWilliams traces the misconception to a 2006 New York Times op-ed piece by food activist Nina Planck, who claimed that E. coli was “not found in the intestinal tracts of cattle raised on their natural diets of grass, hay, and other fibrous forage.” According to McWilliams, Planck drew her conclusions from a 1998 report published in Science that found more acid-resistant E. coli in grain-fed cattle, but failed to specifically test for the O157:H7 strain. Further studies have apparently shown that grass-fed cattle “do…
Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey has announced to company employees that those meeting specific health-related criteria, including blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, and smoking status, will be eligible for an increased store discount. According to the announcement, the company spent more than $150 million in 2009 on employee health care, and the company is offering this “incentive” to lower its health care costs. Health screenings under the new program apparently began January 21, 2010, and discounts of up to 30 percent will be available to qualifying employees. The discount for those deciding not to participate in the program or those not qualifying is 20 percent. Meanwhile, Mackey, who voluntarily cut his annual salary to $1 in 2007, reportedly donated the after-tax compensation he received in 2009 from a previous incentive bonus plan to the Global Animal Partnership, a nonprofit organization developing new standards for the treatment of farm…
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has announced a February 2, 2010, public meeting in Washington, D.C., to solicit government perspectives on front-of-package nutrition labeling systems. The IOM Committee on Examination of Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols has invited input from various government agencies and study sponsors, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Created in response to a congressional mandate, the committee is working on behalf of CDC and FDA to review “the elements of the nutrition rating criteria and science underlying the front-of package systems.” In particular, the group is gathering information on (i) “front-of-package systems being used by manufacturers, supermarkets, health organizations, and governments in the United States and abroad”; (ii) “the purpose and overall merits of front-label nutrition icons”; (iii) “the criteria underlying the systems and . . . their scientific basis”; and (iv)…
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Dean Foods Co., claiming that the company’s 2009 acquisition of Foremost Farms USA’s Consumer Products Division “eliminates substantial competition between the two companies in the sale of milk to schools, grocery stores, convenience stores and other retailers in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.” The attorneys general of these states joined the complaint. According to a Wall Street Journal report, this is the first such action DOJ has filed under the Obama administration. The complaint apparently seeks to undo the deal and require Dean Foods to notify the department at least 30 days before any future purchase of a milk processing operation. According to DOJ, the companies were the first and fourth largest in the region and their merger gave Dean Foods some 57 percent of the market for processed milk there. Local school districts evidently have fewer choices now…
New York Assemblyman Nelson Castro (D-86) has proposed an amendment (A09754) to the state’s agriculture and markets law that would require a warning label on all energy drinks. Citing “serious health risks including heart attack, stroke and even heart disease,” the provision calls for product warnings to appear in a black box and in letters “not less than eight point type.” It would also impose civil liability fines of $1,000 per violation. But unlike a similar proposal in Kentucky that reportedly focuses on caffeine content, the New York law defines an energy drink as containing “a combination of some or all of the following ingredients: sugar, methylkanthines, caffeine, vitamin E, herbs, guarana, açai, taurine, ginseng, maltodextrin, inositol, carnitine, creatine, glucuro-nolactone and ginkgo biloba.” This definition would exclude coffee, according to a January 26, 2010, article in Law360, which noted that the American Beverage Association has questioned the practicality of enforcing…
California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has been gathering information from companies that produce or import carbon nanotubes in the state and has posted the information received by its January 22, 2010, deadline on the agency’s website. The agency has also indicated which companies did not submit the information requested; a news source reports that DTSC may take action through the attorney general’s office against them. DTSC launched the information call-in program in 2009, hoping to identify information gaps and build data about carbon nanotubes. Manufacturers and importers were requested to supply information about “analytical test methods, fate and transport in the environment, and other relevant information.” The agency’s initial request involved reactive nanometal oxides, including aluminum oxide, silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide, and zinc dioxide. It has since identified as nanomaterials of interest nano silver, nano zerovalent iron and cerium oxide. According to a press report, agency sources have…
The Washington and Wisconsin legislatures have reportedly passed bills that would prohibit the use of bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles, sipping cups and other food and beverage containers intended for children younger than age 3. In light of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) recent decision to reassess the plasticizer’s safety, the Washington House of Representatives voted 95-1 in favor of legislation (H. 1180) that would prohibit BPA in bottles, cups or other containers designed primarily for this age group, as well as any sports water bottles, as of July 1, 2011. The bill now heads to the Senate, where the Health and Long-Term Care Committee has delivered a similar version to legislators. Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Senate has adopted its own BPA measure (S. 127), an identical version of which has already passed the Assembly Consumer Protection Committee and now awaits that chamber’s approval. In addition, Vermont lawmakers recently…
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