A recent study asserts that the energy and sodium content of main entrées served in U.S. chain restaurants has remained unchanged over a one-year period, despite the enactment of federal regulations requiring menu labeling. Helen Wu & Roland Sturm, “Changes in the Energy and Sodium Content of Main Entrées in US Chain Restaurants from 2010 to 2011,” Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, October 2013. Relying on data collected from chain restaurant Websites between spring 2010 and spring 2011, the study’s authors noted that “mean energy and sodium did not change significantly overall, although mean sodium was 70 mg lower across all restaurants in added vs removed menu items at the 75th percentile.” They also reported that even though fast-food chains reduced the mean energy in children’s menu entrées by 40 kcal, the adult-sized dishes with reduced sodium levels “far exceeded recommended limits,” while not all significant changes…
Category Archives Issue 499
UC Davis Health System researchers have reportedly identified “a biological pathway that is activated when blood sugar levels are abnormally high and causes irregular heartbeats, a condition known as cardiac arrhythmia that is linked with heart failure and sudden cardiac death.” Jeffrey Erickson, et al., “Diabetic hyperglycaemia activities CaMKII and arrhythmias by O-linked glycosylation,” Nature, October 2013. According to a recent press release, the study’s authors apparently found the biological link after conducting “detailed molecular experiments” using rat and human proteins and tissues, including “assessments of whole heart arrhythmias with optical mapping in isolated hearts and in live diabetic rats.” The results evidently showed “that the moderate to high blood glucose levels characteristic of diabetes caused a sugar molecule (O-linked N acetylglucosamine, or O-GlcNAc) in heart muscle cells to fuse to a specific site on a protein known as calcium/calmodulin dependent protein kinase II, or CaMKII.” This fusion with O-GlcNAc…
“The food industry is spending almost $2 billion a year marketing directly to children and teens,” opines food industry critic Anne Lappé in an October 2, 2013, interview with Mother Jones that focuses on her latest project, Food MythBusters. Discussing a range of topics from genetically modified organ- isms to food marketing and farm labor practices, Lappé not only argues that the food industry “has infiltrated all aspects of our children’s lived experience, including their experience at school,” but claims that legal restrictions on food marketing and advertising are necessary to protect children’s health. She also criticizes the industry’s move toward self-regulation, alleging that such initiatives have already failed. “Diet-related illnesses are causing nearly as many deaths as tobacco-related illnesses, not to mention the impact on quality of life when you start to develop adult-onset diabetes as a child, or all these other diet-related illnesses,” concludes Lappé, whose Food MythBusters…
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic have co-authored a September 2013 report claiming that the date label used on food products “is a key factor” in unnecessary food waste. Titled The Dating Game: How Confusing Food Date Labels Lead to Food Waste in America, the report focuses on the lack of federal standards for date labels such as “use by,” “best before,” “sell by,” and “enjoy by,” arguing that the variability in state and local rules sows confusion among consumers, undermines the system’s goal of providing accurate indicators of freshness and harms both manufactures and retailers “by creating increased compliance burdens and food waste.” To combat these problems, the report recommends that stakeholders “standardize and clarify the food date labeling system across the United States” by establishing “a reliable, coherent, and uniform consumer-facing dating system” that clearly differentiates between “quality-based” and “safety-based” date…
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) recently joined a coalition of nongovernmental organizations in criticizing the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) ahead of the agency’s October 3, 2013, stakeholder meeting on transparency in risk assessment. Led by CEO and backed by groups such as Cancer Prevention and Education Society, Friends of the Earth Europe and GMWatch, the coalition argues in an October 1 open letter that EFSA’s current system for approving food products for market is flawed insofar as the agency’s decision-making process relies on confidential dossiers submitted by industry. In particular, the signatories claim that under international and EU law, EFSA must disclose the contents of these dossiers and should also ensure that the studies used to support its market approvals adhere to the same high standards as those set by peer-reviewed journals. To this end, the coalition recommends that EFSA provide “complete, unrestricted and proactive online publication of applicants’ files,”…
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has reportedly established a compliance panel at the request of Canada and Mexico in an ongoing dispute over the U.S. country-of-origin (COOL) meat labeling rules. Canada’s International Trade Minister Ed Fast and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz applauded the WTO action, saying that the United States must “respect its international trade obligations and put an end to mandatory Country of Origin labeling.” Canada argues that recent changes to the COOL implementing regulations did not bring them into conformity with WTO obligations. Because the compliance panel consists of the original members who found that the U.S. law was unfair to foreign meat producers, the Canadian officials suggest that the process will be accelerated. If the challenge succeeds, “which may include an appeal to the WTO Appellate Body, Canada could seek authorization from the WTO to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports.” Meanwhile, meat and livestock organizations that…
An Illinois appeals court has reversed a trial court determination that Illinois would not be an inconvenient forum for the defendants in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of a 15-year-old boy who allegedly drank two cans of the alcohol energy drink Four Loko and was killed on a Virginia highway after becoming disoriented. Rupp v. Phusion Projects, LLC, No. 1-12-2056 (Ill. App. Ct., order entered September 27, 2013) (not precedential). Additional information about the lawsuit appears in Issue 395 of this Update. According to the appeals court, while the trial court correctly weighed most of the private-interest factors presented, it should have considered the defendant’s choice-of-law issue under the public-interest factor analysis. The appeals court also found that the trial court erred in stating that other defendants had not joined Phusion’s forum non conveniens motion, because the record showed that they had done so. And finally, the…
A federal court in California has preliminarily approved the settlement of shareholder claims that Diamond Foods, Inc. “deliberately understated the costs of walnuts and improperly accounted for payments made to walnut growers to increase apparent profits and maintain higher share prices” in anticipation of the anticipated purchase of Pringles with company stock. In re Diamond Foods, Inc. Securities Litig., No. 11-5386 (N.D. Cal., order entered September 26, 2013). Additional details about the litigation appear in issues 464 and 482 of this Update. Under the terms of the agreement, the defendants will pay to the class $11 million and distribute 4.45 million shares of Diamond common stock—valued at $85.1 million as of August 2013. According to the court, while the maximum aggregated damages totaled some $430 million, the settlement is reasonable in light of “Diamond’s weakened financial condition.” It apparently has just $7.2 million in cash and cash equivalents and carries…
As the fiscal year came to a close and on the eve of the federal government shutdown, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed nearly two dozen employment discrimination lawsuits including one against GMRI, Inc. alleging discrimination based on sex on behalf of a class of women employees at a Salisbury, Maryland, Red Lobster Restaurant. EEOC v. GMRI, Inc., No. 13-2860 (D. Md., filed September 30, 2013). According to the complaint, the defendant’s former culinary manager created a sexually hostile and offensive work environment for the two women who filed the complaint as well as “other similarly situated female employees” by engaging in frequent sexual touching, sexual comments, sexual advances, and vulgar sexual conduct. The conduct, which was allegedly “open and notorious and occurred on a frequent and routine basis,” was purportedly condoned by a former general manager who “himself had a history of making sexually charged and vulgar comments…
A federal court in California has denied the motion to dismiss filed in a putative nationwide class action alleging that Blue Diamond Growers misled consumers by labeling its almond milk products and snack foods as “all natural” and representing that they contain “evaporated cane juice,” (ECJ) in violation of federal labeling requirements incorporated into state law. Werdebaugh v. Blue Diamond Growers, No. 12-2724 (N.D. Cal., San Jose Div., order entered October 2, 2013). The court determined that the claims were not preempted by federal law or the primary jurisdiction doctrine, the plaintiff had standing to pursue claims regarding substantially similar products that he did not purchase, the claims were pleaded with sufficient particularity, and the defendant’s conflict-of-laws challenge was premature.
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