A recent study asserts that even when children’s TV programs are free of product advertisements, they still include positive cues for unhealthy food and beverages. Paul Scully, et al., “Food and beverage cues in UK and Irish children-television programming,” Archives of Disease in Childhood, July 2014. Researchers with the University of Limerick Graduate Entry Medical School apparently analyzed 85.2 hours of primetime children’s programming that aired over five weekdays on two national public broadcast channels. Of the 1,155 food and beverage cues recorded, 47.5 percent represented unhealthy foods and 25 percent represented sugary drinks. Sweet snacks (13.3 percent) and confectionery/candy (11.4 percent) were the most common food cues, while tea and coffee (13.5 percent) and sugar-sweetened drinks (13 percent) were the most common beverage cues. In addition, the study’s authors noted that individual food or beverage cues were portrayed neutrally 47.5 percent of the time, positively 32.6 percent of the…
Category Archives Issue 529
Duke University researchers have reportedly identified a “highly pathogenic mold” in recalled yogurt samples, raising questions about the human health implications of fungal pathogens such as Mucor circinelloides. Soo Chan Lee, et al., “Analysis of a foodborne fungal pathogen outbreak: virulence and genome of a Mucor circinelloides isolate from yogurt,” mBio, July 2014. After isolating the fungal strain from Chobani Greek yogurt voluntarily recalled in September 2013, the study’s authors apparently identified the pathogen as M. circinelloides f. circinelloides, a subspecies “commonly associated with human infection,” and noted that the yogurt isolate was virulent in both mouse and wax moth larva host systems. These isolates also survived transit through the GI tract in the mouse model, suggesting that “M. circinelloides can spoil food products and cause gastrointestinal illness in consumers and may pose a particular risk to immunocompromised patients.” “Typically when people think about food-borne pathogens, they think about viruses or…
A new study has reportedly concluded that “the more a child is familiar with logos and other images from fast-food restaurants, sodas and not-so-healthy snack food brands, the more likely a child is to be overweight or obese.” T. Bettina Cornwell, “Children’s knowledge of packaged and fast food brands and their BMI: Why the relationship matters for policy makers,” Appetite, July 2014. According to a recent press release, researchers found that among two groups of children aged 3 to 5 years, the preschoolers best able to match pictures of food items, packaging and cartoon characters with the corresponding logos were more likely to have higher body mass indexes (BMIs) than those with little knowledge of food and beverage brands. In particular, the study noted that only in one group of children did exercise appear to mitigate this association. “The inconsistency across studies tells us that physical activity should not be…
A study published this week by researchers associated with the Zurich, Switzerland-based Food Packaging Forum has sounded the alarm about the number of allegedly hazardous substances contained in food packaging or those that may contaminate food during production, processing, storage and transportation. Birgit Geueke, et al., “Food contact substances and chemicals of concern: a comparison of inventories,” Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A, published online July 7, 2014. The researchers reportedly compared the inventories of three food contact material (FCM) databases—the Pew Charitable Trusts’ list of legal direct and indirect food additives, the EU-wide positive list for plastic FCMs and the European Food Standard Authority’s 2011 non-plastics FCM substances list—with the Substitute It Now! (SIN) list 2.1 and the TEDX database of endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Ultimately identifying 175 substances “with hazardous properties,” they found “(1) gaps in the regulation of FCMs and (2) how knowledge from different authorities and organizations could…
NPR’s “All Things Considered” has tackled a conundrum that has apparently stymied courts and regulators alike: is a burrito considered a sandwich? According to NPR’s Elise Hu, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) currently distinguishes a sandwich—“meat or poultry filling between two slices of bread, a bun or a biscuit”—from burritos, wraps and hot dogs, but state agencies have also drawn their own conclusions for inspection and tax purposes. “My new home state of New York has a special tax category for sandwiches. And because they have that, it means they then have to go and define what they think a sandwich is,” explains Noah Veltman, a self-identified aficionado of obscure government memoranda. “So they publish this memo that explains that a sandwich includes club sandwiches and BLTs, but they also include hot dogs and they include burritos and they include gyros. And then you have to sort of say,…
City University of New York School of Public Health Professor Nicholas Freudenberg authored a July 8, 2014, article for Corporations & Health Watch, offering eight policy approaches for reducing added sugar consumption. Titled “Time to Talk on Added Sugar Policy,” the article recommends that, in light of New York City’s failure to implement soda-size limitations, new policies should strive to (i) educate the public about the purported risks of excess sugar consumption; (ii) enact regulations requiring companies to reduce the amount of sugar in food and beverages; (iii) use public benefits and nutrition assistance programs to limit the purchase of sugary foods and beverages; (iv) implement taxation schemes targeting specific products and manufacturers; (v) lower dietary guidelines for sugar consumption; (vi) increase the price of sugar by ending sugar subsidies; (vii) encourage institutions to divest from industries that promote sugar consumption; and (viii) launch community-based campaigns to cut sugar. “First,…
The American Medical Association (AMA) has adopted a resolution pressing the federal government to prohibit the use of antibiotics in farm feed for the purpose of growth promotion in response to the rapid development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. David Wallinga, a physician on the Keep Antibiotics Working steering committee, said that overuse of antibiotics has driven resistant bacteria to develop more quickly, and “[a]s much as 70 percent of the use in agriculture is unnecessary or overuse.” Replacing a previous policy that discouraged the use of anti-microbials for non-therapeutic use in agriculture, Resolution 513 states that the AMA will (i) “support federal efforts to ban antibiotic use in food-producing animals for growth promotion purposes, including through regulatory and legislative measures”; (ii) “support a strong federal requirement that antibiotic prescriptions for animals be overseen by a veterinarian”; and (iii) “support efforts to expand [Food and Drug Administration] surveillance and data collection of…
A Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) report examining the sodium contents of popular restaurant meals has urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to set “reasonable limits on the amounts of sodium that can be used in various categories of food.” Although the 17 restaurant chains under review reduced sodium in their menu items by an average of 6 percent between 2009 and 2013, the consumer group singled out some companies for allegedly increasing sodium in the sample meals analyzed for the report. In particular, the report names the top 10 “saltiest meals in America” for both adults and children, noting that “79 percent of the 81 adult meals in the study still contained more than 1,500 milligrams (mg) of sodium,” with some meals topping out at 5,000 mg of sodium. “For far too long, the FDA has relied on a voluntary, wait-and-see approach when it comes…
The Union of Concerned Scientists’ Center for Science and Democracy has published a report describing how companies with an interest in promoting sugar consumption have hidden scientific evidence that reportedly reveals sugar to be a serious health threat. Goldman et al., “Added Sugar, Subtracted Science: How Industry Obscures Science and Undermines Public Health Policy on Sugar,” June 2014. Likening sugar interests to the tobacco industry, the report accuses companies of (i) attacking science, including burying data and threatening funding to the World Health Organization; (ii) spreading misinformation through research institutes, trade associations and front groups; (iii) deploying industry scientists to conduct studies and participate in scientific discussions; (iv) influencing academia by paying academic scientists to persuade other scientists of their positions; and (v) undermining policy through lobbying and supporting political candidates. The report urges the media to call out sugar interests’ misrepresentations of science and encourages scientists to disclose all…
Several major food companies have sent a letter to four U.S. senators and representatives urging Congress to direct Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to suspend revised country-of-origin labeling (COOL) rules on muscle cuts of meat because they discriminate against Canada and Mexico. The letter argues that if the WTO determines that the rule violates U.S. trade obligations, it could authorize retaliation from Mexico and Canada, which “has already issued a preliminary retaliation list targeting a broad spectrum of commodities and manufactured products that will affect every state in the country.” The new rules dictate that meat producers must disclose where their livestock was born, raised and slaughtered and can no longer commingle livestock from differing origins to ensure COOL accuracy. The food company coalition has also challenged the new U.S. Department of Agriculture rules in federal court, and the case is pending after an en banc rehearing in the D.C.…
