The Washington Department of Ecology has implemented the second part of a statewide measure “banning the sale of certain products containing BPA,” which now includes sports bottles with capacity up to 64 ounces. As of July 1, 2012, sport bottles containing bisphenol A (BPA) can no longer “be made, sold or distributed” in the state in accordance with a 2010 law passed by the state legislature. The first phase of the law, which took effect July 1, 2011, already prohibits “bottles, cups or other containers intended for children under age 3 that contain BPA,” although “cans designed to hold or pack food will still be allowed to contain BPA.” “A number of national and international scientific organizations have expressed concerns that BPA can interfere with the body’s hormonal system,” said the department in a July 11, 2012, press release. “Recent studies suggest some children may be exposed to enough BPA…
Category Archives Issue 446
At the European Commission’s request, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published a scientific statement on the safety of food products derived from animal clones. In its June 2012 statement, EFSA reaffirms its earlier statements and opinions, noting that no new information has changed its conclusion that meat and milk from healthy cattle and pig clones and their offspring are no different “compared with those from healthy conventionally bred animals.” EFSA also finds no evidence that cloning farmed animals poses any particular threats to genetic diversity or biodiversity. Still, the scientific statement underlines that animal health and welfare “were compromised in a proportion of clones, mainly observed as increased mortality within the postnatal and juvenile period of calve and piglet clones, as well as in a proportion of the surrogate dams that were affected by abnormal pregnancies.” See EFSA News Release, July 5, 2012.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued a July 6, 2012, notice announcing its decision to restructure its National Residue Program to permit more extensive compound testing of meat, poultry and egg products. According to FSIS, the revamped program aims to reduce the number of samples analyzed while allowing the agency to assess more compounds per sample using improved multi-residue methods. In particular, these methods will enable FSIS to screen for pesticides and environmental contaminants as well as legal and illegal veterinary drugs such as antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and growth promoters. “Under the new system, one sample may be tested for as many as 55 pesticide chemicals, 9 kinds of antibiotics, various metals, and eventually more than 50 other chemicals,” explained the agency in a July 2 press release, which noted that the previous program required FSIS to collect one sample per animal and…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will take part in a collaborative effort to create a public database that will contain 100,000 foodborne pathogen genomes to help facilitate the identification of those responsible for outbreaks involving bacteria such as Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli. Called “The 100K Genome Project,” the undertaking will apparently be a five-year genetic sequencing program openly accessible to researchers and others helping to develop tests that would identify the type of bacteria present in a sample within days or hours. According to one project participant, “Each year in the United States there are more than 48 million cases of foodborne illness. A problem of this magnitude demands an equally large countermeasure.” See FDA News Release, July 12, 2012.
U.S. Representative Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) has released the responses to a February 16, 2012, letter sent to 60 food producers and retailers “asking them to disclose their policies on antibiotic use in meat and poultry production.” After analyzing the results, Slaughter has purportedly revealed that “while a small number of industry leaders provide antibiotic-free meat and poultry products, an overwhelming majority of food production companies routinely feed low-doses of antibiotics to healthy food-animals.” In particular, Slaughter has used these findings to bolster support for the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA), “which would end the routine use of antibiotics on healthy animals” and “preserve the effectiveness of medically important antibiotics.” To this end, she has also highlighted a recent Consumers Union report, “Meat On Drugs,” as evidence that consumers would purchase antibiotic-free products in supermarkets. “Through my survey, the food industry has provided us valuable information, and with…
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