This investigative report by Slate’s wine columnist, Mike Steinberger, examines the retailer allegedly at the center of a multimillion dollar fraud rippling throughout the rare wine world. Manhattan-based Royal Wine Merchants apparently provided its clientele with highly desirable wines that were later deemed fakes and traced back to Hardy Rodenstock, a supplier suspected of creating counterfeits such as “the so-called Thomas Jefferson bottles.” A lawsuit filed by one collector has since highlighted the connection between the two enterprises, revealing that “Rodenstock shipped 818 bottles of wine to Royal between 1998 and 2008.” According to Steinberger, “Many industry insiders… believe that the Rodenstock invoices prove that the rare wine business has indeed been polluted by fraud.” Steinberger meticulously details the voyage of one fake vintage in particular – a magnum of 1921 Château Pétrus – which changed hands several times and left a glut of litigation in its wake. Although a…
Category Archives Issue 353
Shook Of Counsel Jim Andreasen has been appointed by the ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources leadership to chair the section’s Agricultural Management Committee. His one-year term will begin at the conclusion of the section’s 2010 annual business meeting to be held August 8 during the ABA’s annual meeting in San Francisco. As committee chair, Andreasen will be responsible for appointing committee vice chairs, developing a committee action plan and leading the vice chairs in implementing the plan. He previously served as the committee’s programs vice chair. To view the committee’s web page, please click here.
Book author Anneli Rufus recently explored claims made about food ingredients that stimulate the purported “fifth taste” promoted by, among others, Ajinomoto, a Japanese company that manufactures monosodium glutamate (MSG), which was created in the early 1900s as the essence of ingredients that purportedly give food a richness and savoriness identified as umami. Ajinomoto-funded researchers have apparently fueled a food fad that has been gathering steam over the past decade by claiming that umami stimulates particular taste buds, much as sweet, sour, salty and bitter do. Rufus discusses ongoing debates about the safety of MSG; anecdotal evidence allegedly shows that MSG in foods can cause migraines, obesity, asthma, and brain damage. While the Food and Drug Administration requires that food producers include MSG on product labels, the agency does consider MSG as GRAS (generally recognized as safe). Still, other ingredients, such as yeast extract and hydrolyzed vegetable protein also contain…
The American Medical Association (AMA) has adopted new public health policies concerning the reporting of fats on nutrition labels and obesity reduction. During its June 14, 2010, annual meeting, AMA urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to adopt more “precise processes” to measure trans and saturated fat content in foods. Under current FDA guidelines, trans and saturated fat content can be listed on nutrition labels as zero if the food product contains less than 0.5 grams per serving. AMA claims that products labeled “trans fat free” or “zero trans fat” could supply in one serving as much as 25 percent of the recommended daily allowance of trans fats. Claiming that “it’s difficult to make dietary changes if food labels are unclear,” AMA board member Edward Langston urged FDA to use “clear, concise and uniform labeling” and list the most accurate information. AMA also adopted a policy supporting efforts to…
An organic industry watchdog has released a June 7, 2010, letter that urges the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to increase the transparency of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) appointment process. “The Cornucopia Institute, and other organic advocates, have long been concerned that representatives from corporate agribusiness have obtained a disproportionate influence on rulemaking at the USDA,” states a June 8 press release, which claims that in the past, “many eminently qualified candidates . . . did not have the political clout to be appointed.” According to Cornucopia, USDA has continued “the Bush administration policy of keeping secret the nominees and the related corporations or organizations they work for or represent.” The group alleges that NOSB positions reserved for consumers or organic farmers have previously gone to specialists employed by corporate agribusiness or only the largest organic marketers. It has thus asked USDA to make public “the name of…
A Wisconsin organic farm was reportedly scheduled to argue in court this week that state restrictions on the sale of raw milk do not apply where the sales are made to consumers who are part owners of the farm. While the legislature recently attempted to change a law that regulators contend allows incidental raw milk sales only, the state calls the farm’s sales in excess of $80,000 yearly to consumers, who each own a $10 share in the farm, well beyond what the law allows. Wisconsin’s governor vetoed the popular bill, which would have allowed on farm raw milk sales, apparently concerned that E. coli outbreaks purportedly linked to consumption of the unpasteurized product could affect the state’s entire dairy industry. Raw milk proponents dispute that any such link exists. Meanwhile, public health officials investigating a recent E. coli outbreak that has allegedly sickened eight Minnesota residents including school-aged children…
The Environmental Law Foundation has notified more than four dozen food manufacturers and retailers that they are in violation of California’s Proposition 65 Toxics Right to Know law (Prop. 65) after testing purportedly indicated the presence of lead in numerous fruit and fruit juice products. According to the foundation, “apple juice, grape juice, packaged pears and peaches (including baby food), and fruit cocktail” products contained “enough lead in a single serving that they require a warning” under Prop. 65, and the companies, since June 9, 2009, “have exposed and continue to expose consumers of their food products to lead” every day. California’s attorney general, city attorneys and county district attorneys received copies of the notice. The foundation declares in the notices that it intends “to bring suit in the public interest” against the listed companies in 60 days to correct the Prop. 65 violations. A foundation news release indicates that…
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) has denied a request to transfer four pending federal lawsuits to a multidistrict litigation court, finding that the common factual questions about General Mills’s alleged nationwide marketing claims for its Yo-Plus® yogurt products are not sufficiently complex or numerous to justify consolidation. In re: General Mills, Inc., Yoplus Yogurt Prods. Mktg. & Sales Practices Litig., MDL No. 2169 (JPML, order filed June 14, 2010). Putative class actions, challenging the company’s claimed probiotic digestive benefits, are currently pending in federal courts in California, Florida, New Jersey, and Ohio. They involve statewide classes that the court found “will likely not overlap significantly.” The Florida action, already certified, is pending on interlocutory appeal before the Eleventh Circuit, and the California court stayed its class certification hearing pending the JPML’s ruling. According to the panel, “Because all plaintiffs are represented by mostly common counsel and General Mills…
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has withdrawn its proposal to establish a “safe harbor level” under Proposition 65 (Prop. 65) for fumonisin B1, a substance produced by several mold species that occur mostly in corn, wheat and other cereals. The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) objected to the agency’s use of an expedited procedure. According to OEHHA’s notice, “[t]o evaluate the need for a conventional risk assessment, OEHHA would have to conduct a detailed review of the data submitted by GMA along with other relevant information that may be identified through an extensive literature search.” Because OEHHA would have been unable to timely complete its rulemaking process, it withdrew “its proposal to establish a specific level posing no significant risk using expedited methodology for fumonisin B1. “
Members of European Parliament (MEPs) have apparently voted in favor of draft legislation that would require listing energy, fat, saturated fat, sugar, and salt content on the front of food packages. Doing so, they rejected a traffic light system that sought to further emphasize the levels of salt, sugar and fat in processed foods, and opposed parallel schemes run by national regulators. According to a June 14-17, 2010, plenary session report, MEPs approved mandatory front-of-pack (FOP) nutritional information accompanied by guideline daily amounts “expressed with per 100g or per 100ml values.” They also supported (i) stating the amount of protein, fiber and trans fats “elsewhere on the packaging”; (ii) extending country-of-origin labeling regulations to all meat, poultry, dairy, and other single-ingredient products; (iii) labeling meat slaughtered without stunning; (iv) specifying country of origin for “meat, poultry and fish when used as an ingredient in processed food”; and (v) retaining the…
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