The U.K. Food Standards Agency (FSA) has issued an August 16, 2011, notice soliciting information about “the sale and consumption of whole insects and other animals, such as worms,” which may eventually require novel food assessment under the European Union’s (EU’s) food safety laws. Directed at insect suppliers, the Natural History Museum, and various consumer, manufacturer and retailer associations, the request seeks feedback about U.K. insect consumption, including the extent and duration of sales, with the aim of generating “as comprehensive a list as possible of insects and other animals” likely to come under the auspices of EU Novel Food Regulation (EC) 258/97 when it is revisited in 2012. The current food safety regulation apparently omits insects and other whole animals, “largely due to an apparent oversight in the wording of the existing text.” According to FSA, the responses will contribute to “a broader EU-wide investigation into the marketing of edible…
Category Archives Issue 406
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a staff advisory opinion informing the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. (CBBB) that staff does not have any “present intention” to recommend that FTC bring an enforcement action against a CBBB plan to hold companies “engaged in online behavioral advertising” (OBA) accountable for compliance with self-regulatory principles issued in July 2009 and administered by the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA). CBBB sought FTC staff’s assurance that the accountability program, if implemented, would not be subject to restraint of trade prosecution. According to the August 15, 2011, letter, “the proposed accountability program is intended to increase transparency and consumer control of OBA, which has the potential to increase consumer welfare, and there appears to be little or no potential for competitive harm associated with the proposed accountability program.” The principles require companies that engage in OBA to notify consumers they are doing so and…
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