The 14-member committee charged with developing the federal government’s "2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans” has issued its report containing recommendations for promoting consumption of foods and beverages that assist in maintaining a healthy weight and preventing disease. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Agriculture (USDA) are soliciting written comments about the committee’s report as well as offering the opportunity to provide oral comments at a March 24, 2015, public meeting in Bethesda, Maryland. Recommendations include following a diet low in saturated fat, added sugars and sodium, i.e., “less than 2,300 mg dietary sodium per day (or age-appropriate Dietary Reference Intake amount), less than 10 percent of total calories from saturated fat per day, and a maximum of 10 percent of total calories from added sugars per day.” The committee discourages consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. Issue 556
Category Archives Issue 556
Shook, Hardy & Bacon Agribusiness & Food Safety attorneys Ann Havelka and Jeff Lingwall provided an analysis of putative class action labeling claims against Salov North America and its Filippo Berio® brand of olive oil in a February 20, 2015, article for Law360. Kumar v. Salov North America Corp., No. 4:14_CV-02411 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 3, 2015). The plaintiff in the case alleges that Salov’s Filippo Berio® oil is deceptively labeled as “Imported from Italy,” and that independent product tests on the “Extra Virgin” varieties indicate that they are of less-than-extra-virgin quality. According to Havelka and Lingwall, these ongoing olive oil proceedings offer food manufacturers “a cautionary example, both for traditional labeling issues and for the trend toward litigation based on product testing,” making it all the more important for companies to be “prepared with their own test results, documented production standards and quality-control protocols” to ensure that all labeling claims…
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