The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) recently upheld three out of four complaints brought by the Youth Alcohol Advertising Council (YAAC) against Fireball Whiskey distributor Hi Spirits Ltd. over social media advertisements that allegedly promoted excessive drinking. In particular, the complaints focused on Fireball Whiskey’s Facebook page, which, in addition to advertisements depicting young women pouring or consuming alcohol, a young man “lying face down on a bed” and teddy bears branded with the whiskey’s logo, apparently featured (i) “a poster in style of ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’” with the tagline “TAKE A SHOT AND IGNITE THE NITE” and a caption asking users to “Like if you think this is a good plan for the weekend!”; (ii) a status update asking users to submit their “Fireball stories from the weekend” to win “Fireball freebies!”; and (iii) a status update asking students undergoing final exams to “Like this status and…
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The European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA’s) Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA Panel) has initiated a public consultation on the draft scientific opinion on dietary reference values for fluoride. Citing evidence that supports fluoride’s role in the prevention of dental caries, the NDA Panel set the adequate intake (AI) for all sources, including non-dietary ones, based on “estimates of mean fluoride intakes of children via diet and drinking water with fluoride concentrations at which the caries preventative effect approached its maximum whilst the risk of dental fluorosis approached its minimum.” To this end, the panel set the AI of fluoride from all sources at 0.05 mg/kg body weight per day for both children and adults, including pregnant and lactating women. EFSA will accept comments on the proposed reference values until June 13, 2013.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued “a call for acrylamide occurrence data in food and beverages intended for human consumption collected outside official controls.” Part of the agency’s ongoing assessment of acrylamide levels in food and beverages, the latest request for data focuses on the following product categories: (i) french fries sold as ready to eat; (ii) potato crisps; (iii) pre-cooked french fries and potato products for homecooking; (iv) soft bread; (v) breakfast cereals; (vi) biscuits, crackers, crisp bread, and similar products; (vii) coffee and coffee substitutes; (viii) baby foods, “other than processed cereal based foods”; (ix) “processed cereal-based foods for infants and young children”; and (x) other products, including muesli and porridge, pastry and cakes, and savory snacks. EFSA has specified that “the analytical method used for the quantitative determination of acrylamide… should achieve a LOQ [level of quantification] of 30 µm/kg for bread and foods for…
Although a recent proposal to restrict the use of three neonicotinoids failed to gain support from the qualified majority of member states on an appeals committee, the European Commission (EC) has announced its intention to proceed with the plan as part of its bid to better protect honeybees. Basing its decision on a European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) scientific report that “identified ‘high acute risks’ for bees as regards exposure to dust in several crops such as maize, cereals and sunflower, to residue in pollen and nectar in crops like oilseed rape and sunflower and to guttation in maize,” the Commission has agreed to limit the use of clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiametoxam “for seed treatment, soil application (granules) and foliar treatment on bee- attractive plants and cereals” for a period of two years starting December 1, 2013. Under the plan, “the remaining authorized uses are available only to professionals,” with possible…
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine Michael Taylor said this week that the agency “is taking a fresh look at the potential impact that the totality of new and easy sources of caffeine may have on the health of children and adolescents, and if necessary, will take appropriate action.” According to Taylor, “[t]he only time that FDA explicitly approved the added use of caffeine in a food was for cola and that was in the 1950s.” He acknowledged that in today’s environment children and adolescents can be exposed to the substance “beyond anything FDA envisioned when it made the determination regarding caffeine in cola.” In 2010, FDA warned companies producing alcoholic malt beverages that the added caffeine was an unsafe additive and that seizure of their products was possible under federal law. The companies ceased producing the caffeinated products. Additional information about the 2010…
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued guidance to answer stakeholder questions about changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) slated to take effect on July 1, 2013. According to FTC, the new rules apply not only to the operators of Websites and mobile apps directed at children younger than age 13, but the operators of general audience sites and apps “with actual knowledge that they are collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under 13,” as well as third-party operators “that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information directly from users of another Web site or online service directed to children.” In addition to describing the types of personal information covered by COPPA, which for the first time will class IP addresses as persistent identifiers, the guidance addresses, among other things, (i) new online privacy policy rules, including requirements for displaying the policy; (ii)…
The Society of Biological Psychiatry has dedicated the May 1, 2013, edition of its flagship journal, Biological Psychiatry, to the debate over whether “food is, or can be addictive.” According to its introduction, the special issue explores (i) whether food and drugs of abuse share common neurobiological mechanisms; (ii) whether the addiction model can “reasonably” be adopted for binge eating; (iii) the possibility of shared vulnerabilities, such as stress, that can affect “the likelihood of a relapse for drug addiction and obesity”; and (iv) the key differences between food and drug addiction models. To this end, it includes articles that address the theories, concepts and evidence behind food addiction models; addiction risk factors and susceptibility; neural adaptations and reward circuits; and the prevalence of binge eating disorder, among other topics. Additional details about commentary authored by Ashley Gearhardt and Kelly Brownell for this special edition appear in Issue 450 of…
British-based researchers who closely examined alcohol industry submissions to a 2008 Scottish government consultation on “Changing Scotland’s relationship with alcohol” have distilled the arguments presented and contend that they misrepresent the scientific evidence and should not be considered persuasive. Jim McCambridge, et al., “Industry Use of Evidence to Influence Alcohol Policy: A Case Study of Submissions to the 2008 Scottish Government Consultation,” PLOS Medicine, April 2013. Observing that industry actors “consistently oppose[] whole-population approaches, . . . favouring instead targeted interventions that focus on a supposedly problematic minority of drinkers and emphasising the role of individual responsibility,” and faulting their use of relevant research literature, the authors “suggest that the public interest is not served by industry actors’ involvement in the interpretation of research evidence” and that “[c]ommercial conflicts of interest should be made explicit.” They further warn policy makers to “treat industry actors’ interpretation of research evidence with extreme…
A recent study investigating the link between dietary phosphatidylcholine (lecithin) and the production of trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), “a proatherosclerotic metabolite,” has concluded that “the production of TMAO from dietary phosphatidylcholine is dependent on metabolism by the intestinal microbiota.” W.H. Wilson Tang, et al., “Intestinal Microbial Metabolism of Phosphatidylcholine and Cardiovascular Risk,” The New England Journal of Medicine, April 2013. During the first phase of the study, researchers administered a dietary phosphatidylcholine challenge (two hard-boiled eggs and 250 mg of deuterium [d9]-labeled phosphatidylcholine) to 40 healthy adults, then analyzed participants’ plasma and urinary TMAO levels as well as their plasma choline and betaine levels. The study’s authors also performed the same analyses after six participants took a week-long course of antibiotics to suppress their gut microbiota and after the effects of the antibiotics had worn off. According to the study, the researchers not only observed “time-dependent increases in levels of both TMAO…
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has issued its 2013 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce, which “ranks pesticide contamination on 48 popular fruits and vegetables, based on an analysis of more than 28,000 samples tested by the U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA] and federal [Food and Drug Administration].” This year’s “Clean Fifteen™” list—fruits and vegetables with the least pesticide load—includes corn, onions, pineapples, avocados, cabbage, frozen sweet peas, papayas, mangoes, asparagus, eggplant, kiwi, grapefruit, cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, and mushrooms. Topping the “Dirty Dozen™” list of the “most pesticide-contaminated produce” are apples, followed by strawberries, grapes and celery. According to EWG, this is the second year in a row that the group “has expanded the Dirty Dozen™ with a Plus category to highlight two crops— domestically-grown summer squash and leafy greens, specifically kale and collards.” Evidently, these crops “did not meet traditional Dirty Dozen™ criteria but were commonly contaminated with pesticides…
