A January 18, 2012, Mobiledia article has highlighted the increasingly sophisticated technology used to trace food back to its source, exploring how QR codes and other tracking devices can help consumers, retailers and regulators follow products from farm to fork. According to Mobiledia contributor Janet Maragioglio, systems like IBM’s InfoSphere label products with unique bar codes “at each stage of production and distribution” to identify “farms, slaughterhouses, shipping containers, trucks, grocery stores and other stops along the food supply chain.” As Maragioglio reports, InfoSphere can even tag specific animals so that consumers with smart phones could “theoretically, find out which specific cow their milk came from or which pig provided their bacon.” Meanwhile, the capabilities of these systems have drawn attention from government agencies interested in accessing information about the entire market. “Federal regulators are imposing increasingly strict requirements on food suppliers, and may soon need them to adopt traceability…
Category Archives Issue 423
A Slate.com science writer has penned a January 17, 2012, “Medical Examiner” blog post criticizing media coverage that used recent microRNA (miRNA) research to erroneously suggest a link between genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and human health. According to biologist Emily Willingham, Nanjing University scientists reportedly identified miRNA from rice and other plant foods in human blood and tissues, raising questions about whether the foreign genetic material could inhibit normal protein functions. “The rice results, simply stated, show an effect of one miRNA from one non-GM plant on one protein in live mice and in cultured human liver cancer cells,” recounts Willingham, who singles out a January 9 Atlantic article by Ari LeVaux for mischaracterizing these findings as evidence of GMO health risks and igniting “a social-media chain reaction” in the process. In particular, Willingham refutes LeVaux’s implication that GM foods contain modified miRNA and thus should come under more stringent…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Institute of Medicine (IOM) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) have joined HBO, Kaiser Permanente and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation in launching a new national campaign to curb obesity rates. According to a January 13, 2012, IOM press release, “The Weight of the Nation” initiative aims to “shed light on the facts and myths of this urgent public health issue and explore how obesity is impacting our nation and health care system.” The campaign evidently features policy action kits and several media pieces, including a four-part documentary to be aired May 14 and 15, 2012, on HBO, as well as a forthcoming IOM report funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation “that will review progress made so far to implement strategies to curb obesity and recommend selected actions aimed at accelerating progress in the near future.” In particular, the IOM…
Switzerland-based Nestlé S.A. has announced plans to fund a dairy farming institute in Shuangcheng, China, to help the region’s suppliers expand their businesses and source “high quality milk sustainably.” According to a January 11, 2012, press release, the new institute “aims to be the country’s leading dairy training center, offering teaching courses from national and international experts.” The company and city of Shuangcheng are reportedly investing 2.5 billion Chinese yuan in the project, which will also guarantee bank loans for purchasing additional cattle and increase the “training and technical assistance already provided to local farmers.” As further noted in a January 13, 2012, Wall Street Journal article, Nestlé evidently “hopes to increase its market share in China’s dairy industry” and believes larger farms will help “boost production and efficiency while projecting a reputation for safety.” Other foreign companies such as Fonterra Co-Operative Group Ltd. have likewise indicated interest in more consolidated…
Animal rights activists have reportedly claimed responsibility for an arson fire that destroyed 14 cattle trucks and other equipment at Harris Ranch in California’s San Joaquin Valley. In an anonymous e-mail message to the media, activists said the January 8, 2012, fire was started to protest “the horrors and injustice of factory farming.” The message ended with, “Until next time.” Apparently no people or animals were injured in the fire at the farming operation, one of the largest cattle feedlots in California and the 14th largest in the United States. See Truth About Trade & Technology, January 17, 2012.
The National Advertising Division (NAD®) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus has reportedly determined that while Gerber Products Co. can justify certain of its baby food advertising claims, others should be modified or discontinued. Competitor Beech-Nut apparently challenged claims pertaining to Gerber’s “Graduates” product line before the industry self-regulatory body. Among other matters, NAD® found that “unique and innovative” claims were substantiated, and that Gerber could continue to make two exclusivity claims: “Only Graduates Lil’ Entrees is designed just for toddlers, with protein, grains, and a side of veggies . . . [o]f items in the Baby Aisle” and Gerber Graduates Healthy Meals are “The only meals designed for preschoolers with protein and a full serving of veggies.” NAD® took issue, however, with “the message conveyed by Gerber’s TV commercials for its Fruit & Veggie Melts. This commercial features a voiceover that claims, ‘the Gerber generation is making their fruit…
University of Turin Law Professor Margherita Poto explores the food safety laws in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong to set the stage for discussing how their regulatory systems may be sufficiently advanced to address the potential challenges posed by the use of nanotechnology in the food sciences. Her article appears in a special edition of the European Journal of Law & Technology devoted to nanotechnology issues. According to Poto, existing risk analysis rules, registration and traceability requirements and premarket approval should adequately ensure the safety of “nano-foods.” She contends, “Mainland China and Hong Kong are seriously committed to strengthen their regulatory framework in order to protect consumers from unsafe food and this commitment can involve the field of nano-foods, as an integrant part of the novel foods regulation. The regulatory framework may allow PRC, as well as Western countries, to reach…
A federal court in Illinois has determined that insurers providing coverage to Phusion Projects, Inc., which makes Four Loko, an alcoholic beverage with large amounts of caffeine and other stimulants, do not have a duty to defend the company in lawsuits alleging injury from intoxication. Netherlands Ins. Co. v. Phusion Projects, Inc., No. 11-1253 (N.D. Ill., decided January 17, 2012). The insurers filed a declaratory judgment action against Phusion claiming that they had no duty to defend or indemnify it in five lawsuits because of an unambiguous exclusion from coverage in the applicable insurance policies. Phusion brought a counterclaim, arguing that they did have a duty to defend it. According to the court, the exclusion applies to any case alleging injury arising from intoxication. Because four of the five cases filed against Phusion involve injury attributable to intoxication, the court found that the insurers have no duty to defend the beverage…
A group of environmentalists is reportedly seeking to qualify a voter initiative in California that would require special labels on foods containing genetically engineered (GE) ingredients. With 504,760 signatures needed by June 4, 2012, to be eligible for the November 6 ballot, the environmentalists claim that the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies have not adequately regulated GE material. “After 20 years of biotech bullying and force-feeding unlabeled and hazardous genetically modified foods to animals and humans—aided and abetted by the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations—a critical mass of food and health activists have decided it’s time to move beyond small skirmishes and losing battles and go on the offensive,” asserted Ronnie Cummins, national director of the Organic Consumers Association, one of the organizations supporting the petition. Cummins evidently hopes the initiative will mimic California’s Proposition 65, a 1986 voter initiative that requires consumer warnings about exposures to chemicals known…
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official has declared seafood from the Gulf of Mexico safe for human consumption after 2010’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In December 2011, eight U.S. Senators urged the agency to “publicly and vigorously” defend the safety of Gulf seafood. In a January 11, 2012, FDA blog post, Deputy Commissioner for Foods Michael Taylor said that more than 10,000 seafood specimens were tested for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) after the spill and that PAH levels were “100 to 1,000 times below the levels which would raise a health concern.” Taylor added that FDA feels “confident that the levels that were set are safe and protect the health of anyone who eats seafood, including children and pregnant women.”
