A California federal court has entered a consent decree compelling the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to designate a list of high-risk foods as required by the Food Safety Modernization Act. Ctr. for Food Safety v. Azar, No. 18-6299 (N.D. Cal., entered June 7, 2019). The decree is the result of a lawsuit brought by the Center for Food Safety and Center for Environmental Health seeking to compel the agency to promulgate a list of "high-risk foods for which additional recordkeeping requirements are appropriate and necessary to protect the public health" as well as host the list on the FDA website. The decree lists deadlines for FDA to meet—including September 8, 2020, for the designation—but allows the agency to seek extensions if it needs one "despite FDA's best efforts (meaning commitment of agency time, money, energy, and resources that FDA reasonably anticipates will result in meeting the schedule in…
Category Archives Issue 716
A New Jersey federal court has denied class certification to a plaintiff challenging Tropicana's marketing representations of its juice as "pure" and "natural." In re Tropicana Orange Juice Mktg. & Sales Practices Litig., No. 11-7382 (D.N.J., entered June 19, 2019). The court first denied certification for a New York class because the plaintiff only purchased Tropicana in California, then it turned to the requirement of predominance. "Plaintiff has not demonstrated that a uniform misrepresentation was made to the class sufficient to satisfy predominance as to the '100% pure and natural orange juice,' '100% pure,' '100% natural,' '100% juice' 'fresh,' 'grove to glass,' 'squeezed from fresh oranges,' 'straight-from-the-orange,' and Orange/Straw labels," the court found. "[T]he Court would be required to perform an individualized inquiry into each product purchased to determine what combinations of labels were visible before determining whether that combination is deceiving to a reasonable consumer. These variations are the…
A former vice president of National Beverage Corp. has alleged that he was fired because he objected to the company president's intention to use cans lined with bisphenol A (BPA) while marketing its LaCroix products as natural and BPA-free. Dejewski v. Nat'l Beverage Corp., No. PAS-L-1802-19 (N.J. Super. Ct., Passaic Cty., filed June 6, 2019). The complaint alleges that Albert Dejewski was fired in retaliation for objecting to Joseph Caporella's plan to "prematurely announce" that the company's LaCroix cans would be BPA-free; Dejewski argues that Caporella knew LaCroix would not be sold in BPA-free cans until "at a minimum 4-6 months" after the announcement. Dejewski seeks damages under New Jersey's whistleblower-protection law.
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has issued a response to a series by The Guardian purporting to examine the role of chemicals in Americans' lives. "Sadly, in those stories, they decided to peddle misinformation and promote well-worn accusations from anti-industry activists that can create unnecessary fear and confusion about the products we use in our daily lives," ACC argues. "It’s important to know that the mere presence of a substance does not imply that a chemical will lead to adverse effects. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) emphasizes, 'The measurement of an environmental chemical in a person’s blood or urine does not by itself mean that the chemical causes disease.'" The article also responds to a number of specific claims made in the "Toxic America" series, including that "We should try to limit our exposure to essentially all chemicals," which is attributed to Philippe Grandjean. ACC notes,…
Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), in partnership with the Natural Products Association, has reportedly filed an amendment to the House Agriculture appropriations bill that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) funding to undertake the process to identify a safe daily intake level of cannabidiol (CBD). “Since the passage of the 2018 Farm Act – which eliminated hemp from the definition of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act – we’ve seen a significant increase in the production and sales of CBD products,” said McNerney in a June 18, 2019, press release. “With more and more CBD appearing on supermarket shelves across the country, it’s time for American consumers to have accurate information on CBD and for producers to be properly regulated to make the marketplace safe and reliable.” FDA has also announced the extension of the comment period for the public hearing intended to "obtain scientific data and information…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a statement on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in food following a presentation published in the media that indicated the agency found the substances in meat, fish and chocolate. "Overall, our findings did not detect PFAS in the vast majority of the foods tested," the statement reads. "In addition, based on the best available current science, the FDA does not have any indication that these substances are a human health concern, in other words a food safety risk in human food, at the levels found in this limited sampling. These data give our scientists a benchmark to use as we continue our critical work studying this emerging area of science."
President Donald Trump has reportedly signed an executive order that directs federal agencies to simplify the path to regulatory approval for genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The order also apparently recommends that trading partners should be urged to take similar approaches to regulating GMOs.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has announced a change in guidance on the use of phosphates as food additives. The agency's scientists recommended a group acceptable daily intake of 40 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, or about 2.8 grams for the average 70-kilogram adult. According to the announcement, the existing maximum permitted levels "range from 500 to 20,000 milligrams per kilogram."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has finalized guidance on labeling for added sugars in single-ingredient packages of "pure honey, pure maple syrup, and other pure sugars and syrups, which are not required to bear the words 'Includes Xg Added Sugars' but must still include the percent Daily Value (DV) for added sugars on their labels." The agency also indicated its intention "to exercise enforcement discretion with respect to the use of truthful and not misleading statements on single-ingredient packages and/or containers."
The U.K. National Audit Office has released a report that "examines the effectiveness of the current regulatory arrangements to ensure that food is safe to eat and is what it says it is." The report found that spending on maintaining food safety systems in the country has declined, and some local authorities "are failing to meet statutory objectives to conduct interventions." The agency also purportedly found that the "regulatory system lacks the full range of enforcement powers to ensure businesses supply safe food."
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