The British Medical Journal has published a study that sought to “assess the impact of fast food restaurants adding calorie labeling to menu items on the energy content of individual purchases.” According to the researchers, including an independent consultant and a city official, the more than 8,400 adults interviewed in 2009 did not overall purchase foods lower in calories after New York City implemented regulations requiring calorie posting, but among the one in six lunchtime customers who used the calorie information provided, lower calorie choices were made. Significant variations were apparently found in the data collected from different chains, a matter attributed to customer purchasing patterns and changes in menu options and promotions. More than 7,300 lunchtime customers at 275 fast-food locations, representing 13 chains, were interviewed in 2007 and provided their register receipts so researchers could verify their self-reported purchases. The same method was used to compare and assess…
Category Archives Issue 403
“The big question is this: How do we get the safest and most ethical food system possible while adequately feeding ourselves?,” asks New York Times columnist Mark Bittman in this latest opinion piece supporting “a massive overhaul of the food system.” Discussing recent E. coli outbreaks in Europe, Bittman concedes that the controversial process known as irradiation “could be a useful tool” in controlling bacteria and other foodborne illnesses, but warns that it should not be viewed as a panacea or replacement for other measures. “The answer will come in steps,” he writes. “[B]etter regulation and inspection of food production; stricter labor laws; more rigorous testing for pathogens, to name just a few— and eventually those steps may lead to a point where irradiation is unnecessary.” Bittman urges lawmakers to adequately fund the Food and Drug Administration’s Food Safety Modernization Act, even while citing “the ironies” inherent in a system…
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently released the summary of a November 2-3, 2010, public workshop titled “Leveraging Food Technology for Obesity Prevention and Reduction Effort,” which addressed how the food industry “can continue to leverage modern and innovative food processing technologies to influence energy intake.” According to IOM, “Eating is impacted not only by the biological responses that occur when the presence of food or even the smell of food triggers physiological chain reactions but also by societal norms and values around portion size and other eating behaviors.” Workshop organizers invited behavioral scientists, food scientists and other experts from multiple sectors to discuss “evidence-based associations between various eating behaviors and weight gain and considered the opportunities and challenges of altering the food supply—both at home and outside the home (e.g., in restaurants)—to alleviate overeating and help consumers with long-term weight maintenance.” In particular, the workshop attendees explored four general…
The National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus and the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU) have announced the agendas for their joint 2011 annual conferences slated for October 3-5, 2011, in New York. The two-day NAD conference, “What’s New in Advertising Law, Claim Support and Self-Regulation,” will include keynote remarks by David Vladeck, director of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) Bureau of Consumer Protection, as well as sessions on online behavioral advertising, claim substantiation, mobile marketing, litigation and FTC enforcement priorities, and the future of advertising self-regulation. Immediately following the NAD session, CARU will host a one-day conference focused on privacy and digital issues in youth marketing, with expert panels dedicated to new FTC regulations, multimedia and social media advertising to children, and responsible food marketing to children.
A 33-year-old man has filed a personal injury lawsuit in a Texas federal court against companies that made and sold the Four Loko® that allegedly caused the stroke he had in October 2010 immediately after consuming two cans of the caffeinated alcohol beverage. Villa v. Phusion Projects, LLC, No. __ (S.D. Texas, filed mid-July 2010). According to the complaint, the plaintiff continues to experience health problems, including slurred speech and lack of balance. Alleging negligence and products liability, the plaintiff seeks damages in excess of $75,000, punitive damages, attorney’s fees, and costs.
A California woman has filed a putative nationwide class action against the company that makes Muscle Milk® beverages and protein bars, alleging that promotions touting the products as “high performance” and “nutritious snacks” are false and misleading because they contain as much fat and calories as Krispy Kreme® doughnuts. Delacruz v. Cytosport, Inc., No. 11-3532 (N.D. Cal., filed July 18, 2011). The company apparently markets the products as “a ‘meal replacement’ to provide ‘healthy sustained energy’” and allegedly “suggests that these fat-filled Products will help people lose weight, telling consumers, among other things, that the Products will help people ‘Go from cover it up to take it off.’” According to the complaint, the named plaintiff purchased the products for six months and consumed them “before workouts, after workouts, in between meals as a snack, and sometimes as a meal replacement.” She contends that she did so in reliance on the…
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has announced that its Carcinogen Identification Committee will discuss whether 39 chemicals should be prioritized “for possible preparation of hazard identification materials” during the committee’s October 12-13, 2011, meeting. While no decision will be made at this meeting about adding the chemicals to California’s Proposition 65 (Prop. 65) list of substances known to the state to cause cancer, the process OEHHA is following could ultimately lead to their inclusion. Public comments on the 39 listed chemicals are requested by September 20, 2011. Among those chemicals under consideration is bisphenol A (BPA). According to OEHHA’s supporting materials, which include references to numerous carcinogenicity and genotoxicity studies, billions of pounds of BPA are produced each year in the United States, and most human exposure occurs “through the diet.” Other chemicals under consideration are those used in agriculture, such as the fungicides chloropicrin, dicloran,…
The European Union (EU) has reportedly introduced new rules that would halve the percentage of added water allowed in bacon products labeled as such. According to media sources, current laws set the added water limit for bacon at 10 percent, but the updated measure would require bacon containing more than 5 percent added water to be renamed “bacon with added water.” If adopted by the European Council this fall, the regulations would apparently take effect in 2015. The plan has since drawn feedback from both bacon retailers and aficionados, as well as government agencies like the U.K. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which said that the stricter requirements would “make it clearer to shoppers exactly what they are buying.” The British Retailers Consortium (BRC), however, was less sanguine, telling reporters that reducing the added water content would make bacon “less moist, less succulent and less tender when it…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued a proposed rule that would require raw meat and poultry products that contain injected marinades or solutions to be named in a way that clearly distinguishes them from 100 percent meat or poultry products. According to FSIS, consumers are likely unaware that“enhanced products” may contain increased levels of sodium because current labels are unclear as to whether a solution has been added. For example, under current rules, 100 percent chicken breasts and products containing 60 percent chicken and 40 percent solution may both be called and labeled “chicken breast.” The latter product must indicate that a solution has been added, but manufacturers have been doing so in typefaces and fonts that can be difficult to read. To avoid misbranding, FSIS proposes that the labels feature (i) as the product’s “name” an accurate description of the product with the percent…
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) related to bisphenol A (BPA) toxicity testing and the study of its potential environmental impacts. The agency has requested comments by September 26, 2011, on (i) requiring toxicity testing “to determine the potential for BPA to cause adverse effects, including endocrine-related effects, in environmental organisms at low concentrations,” and (ii) monitoring for BPA in surface water, ground water, drinking water, soil, sediment, and landfill leachate “to determine whether environmental organisms may currently be exposed to concentrations of BPA in the environment that are at or above levels of concern for adverse effects, including endocrine-related effects.” According to a July 26, 2011, EPA press release, the ANPRM builds on a March 2010 action plan meant to strengthen the agency’s chemical management program and “assure the safety of chemicals that many American encounter in their daily lives.”…
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