“A curious hurdle is threatening to complicate efforts by the United States to reach a major trade agreement with 11 Pacific nations by the end of the year: catfish,” reports New York Times writer Ron Nixon in a November 13, 2013, article describing how the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) new catfish inspection program has angered Vietnam, a member of the TransPacific Partnership and a major exporter of a catfish known as pangasius. Vietnamese trade officials have apparently written to Secretary of State John Kerry, the White House and Congress, criticizing the new inspection program as a trade barrier in disguise. “And it’s not even a good disguise; it’s clearly a thinly veiled attempt designed to keep out fish from countries like Vietnam,” Le Chi Dzung, the chief economic officer of the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington, D.C., told the Times. Intended to replace the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) catfish…
Category Archives Issue 504
In response to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s request for comments on its “Draft Guidance for Industry on Arsenic in Apple Juice: Action Level,” the Center for Food Safety (CFS) has asked the agency to “limit the public’s exposure to arsenic through a new regulatory strategy that recognizes the prevalence of arsenic in the food supply.” Stating that although individual foods containing arsenic may be safe to eat in moderation, CFS maintains that they are often consumed in combination, thereby presenting a risk of “cumulative arsenic exposure” that could reach dangerous levels. Calling FDA’s draft guidance “insufficient” to address these health hazards, CFS’s November 12, 2013, letter to FDA asks for the agency to regulate based on “cumulative arsenic exposure” rather than through product specific levels. According to CFS, FDA “must do more” to adequately protect public health. To that end, CFS suggests that, because arsenic is present in…
A recent viewpoint article published in the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry (ANZJP) has raised the question of whether food addiction “is a ‘true’ and valid addiction, through the lens of the recently released DSM-5,” the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Nagesh Pai, et al., “Is food addiction a valid phenomenon through the lens of the DSM-5?,” ANZJP, November 2013. In particular, the article notes that DSM-5 for the first time includes “non-substance related, behavioral or process addictions” such as Gambling Disorder and Internet Gaming Disorder, thus setting the foundation “for the potential future inclusion of food addiction.” “Readers of the DSM-5 that are familiar with the food addiction literature, may be left wondering why food addiction was excluded based upon the rationale for the inclusion of Gambling Disorder,” write the article’s authors. “Specifically, that gambling activates the same…
Subject to court approval, Frito-Lay will pay $1.6 million to settle wage-andhour claims filed on behalf of current and former employees who deliver its products to stores and arrange the store displays. Elliott v. Rolling FritoLay Sales, LP, No. 11-1730 (C.D. Cal., filed November 9, 2011). A hearing on the plaintiff’s motion for preliminary approval will be held December 23, 2013. The plaintiff alleged that Frito-Lay did not pay all the wages owed for overtime hours worked, provide duty-free meal periods and rest breaks, provide accurate itemized wage statements, or pay all wages due on cessation of employment to its route sales associates (RSAs), merchandisers and detailers. According to the plaintiff, Frito-Lay calculated overtime pay “using an illegal fluctuating workweek rather than California’s mandated forty hours workweek. The effect of utilizing the fluctuating workweek is that the more hours Plaintiff and RSAs work in excess of forty hours, the lower their…
California residents have filed a putative class action against Whole Foods Market, alleging that the company misleads consumers by labeling certain snack products as “All Natural” because they contain “the synthetic chemical ingredient Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, among other synthetic ingredients (e.g., Maltodextrin).” Garrison v. Whole Foods Mkt., Inc., No. 13-5222 (N.D. Cal., filed November 8, 2013). Seeking to certify statewide and nationwide classes, the plaintiffs claim that they relied on the truthfulness of the “product label’s promise that these Products were ‘All Natural,’” paid a price premium over products that are not all natural, “ingested a substance that was other than what was represented,” and “ingested a product that did not bring the health benefits Defendant promised.” The products at issue include mini muffins, soft-baked cookies and an array of gluten-free products, including apple pie, cheddar biscuits, corn bread, cookies, and cupcakes. While the plaintiffs mention various claims that the…
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a district court properly granted Kraft Foods a preliminary injunction against the sale of Cracker Barrel Old Country Store (CBOCS) food products in grocery stores under Kraft’s registered trademark name “Cracker Barrel.” Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC v. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., No. 13-2559 (7th Cir., decided November 14, 2013). The court agreed that consumers could be confused when viewing a CBOCS ham label on a grocery store shelf or in a store circular because the words “Cracker Barrel” were larger than “Old Country Store” and Kraft cheeses also carry the “Cracker Barrel” name. While the logos are not the same, the court said that some consumers might believe that both products were made by Kraft. The court weighed the respective harms to both companies and found the potential harm to Kraft greater, because it could be wrongly blamed…
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has issued a notice of intent “to list emissions from high-temperature unrefined rapeseed oil as known to the State to cause cancer under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986” (Prop. 65). The proposal is based on the 2010 cancer identification by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) for “emissions created by frying food in unrefined rapeseed oil [commonly known as canola oil] heated past its boiling point.” IARC apparently found that these emissions “cause increased incidence of malignant tumors in female rats and combined malignant and benign tumors in both sexes of the mouse.” Comments are requested by December 16, 2013. See OEHHA News Release, November 15, 2013.
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has issued the tentative agenda for the December 5, 2013, meeting of its Carcinogen Identification Committee, which identifies chemicals for addition to the Proposition 65 list when they have been “clearly shown, through scientifically valid testing according to generally accepted principles, to cause cancer.” Under consideration will be butyl benzyl phthalate, a chemical used in food conveyor belts, and diisononyl phthalate, a plasticizer used in food-contact materials. The meeting will be webcast. See OEHHA News Release, November 14, 2013.
Legislation (H.B. 660) in Maine that would require food manufacturers to label products containing genetically modified (GM) ingredients is reportedly in jeopardy after New Hampshire lawmakers voted 12-8 against a similar labeling bill. Although Maine’s law passed earlier this year with broad bipartisan support, it can take effect only if five contiguous states pass similar laws. “I was not surprised,” said the New Hampshire bill’s sponsor Maureen Mann (D-Deerfield) in a news article. Evidently, while a subcommittee that spent the summer working on the bill recommended its approval, members of New Hampshire’s House Environment and Agriculture Committee expressed reservations about the measure, citing difficulties with enforcement because food labeling is a federal matter. According to sources, unlike in Maine, the vote in New Hampshire broke along party lines, with Republican committee members largely opposing it. Democrats have a 42-vote majority in the New Hampshire House, while Republicans have a two-seat…
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued a statement finding that a published review of observational studies ultimately failed to establish a causal relationship between high intakes of phosphate additives in food and increased cardiovascular risk in the general population. In addition to considering the data on the association between serum phosphate levels and cardiovascular disease, the review in question apparently proposed a mechanism by which the metabolism of inorganic phosphate could contribute to vascular calcification, in the process suggesting that “intake of phosphate as a food additive, especially through consumption of processed and ready-to-eat food, is of particular concern.” Additional details about the review, which was initially published in the January 2012 edition of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, appear in Issue 428 of this Update. After assessing these findings at the request of the European Commission, EFSA concluded that (i) the limitations of the observational studies included in the…
12
