In a JAMA Viewpoint article, researchers from Stanford University have argued that nutrition studies should be transparent about their authors' financial and non-financial conflicts of interest, including their dietary preferences and activism work. Noting that "the puritanical view that accepting funding from the food industry ipso facto automatically biases the results is outdated," the authors briefly call for a financial disclosure registry before shifting to focus on non-financial conflicts of interest. "Advocacy and activism have become larger aspects of the work done by many nutrition researchers, and also should be viewed as conflicts of interest that need to be disclosed," they assert. "Therefore, it is important for nutrition researchers to disclose their advocacy or activist work as well as their dietary preferences if any are relevant to what is presented and discussed in their articles," the researchers argue. "This is even more important for dietary preferences that are specific, circumscribed, and…
Category Archives Issue 663
A federal court in California has again denied class certification in a lawsuit alleging that Gerber Products Inc. misbranded baby food, finding that the plaintiff is not entitled to injunctive relief and that the proposed damages models will not provide the correct measure of restitution. Bruton v. Gerber Prods. Co., No. 12-2412 (N.D. Cal., entered February 13, 2018). The complaint alleged that certain “Nature Select” and “Organic” lines of Gerber baby foods made unlawful and deceptive nutrient claims and that the labels did not contain federally required warnings of the high calorie content of the products. After initial rulings on summary judgment were appealed to the Ninth Circuit, the remaining allegations included a claim that the labels violated California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL) and a claim for unjust enrichment. The court found that although the plaintiff had standing under the UCL, a class seeking injunctive relief can be certified only…
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