U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich), who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, has joined ranking committee member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and 31 other senators in asking U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk “to quickly address Russia’s new import ban on U.S. beef, poultry and turkey.” According to a February 19, 2013, news release, the ban stems “from Russia’s zero tolerance policy regarding ractopamine, a feed additive for livestock approved by both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Codex Alimentarius Commission [CODEX].” In their letter to the trade representative, the senators claim that this “egregious” trade barrier would cost the U.S. economy $600 million annually and amount to an import ban in violation of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement. “The United States must do everything it can to defend its rights in both the WTO and CODEX and prevent non-science-based trading practices from…
Category Archives Issue
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed the grant of class certification for some 1,600 Domino’s Pizza delivery drivers in Minnesota, finding that their claims lacked commonality. Luiken v. Domino’s Pizza, LLC, No. 12-1216 (8th Cir., decided February 4, 2013). The drivers claimed that Domino’s improperly withheld from them a fixed delivery charge imposed on customer orders. They contended that the charge was in the nature of a surcharge or gratuity under Minnesota law and, as such, must be paid to them. According to the court, liability was based on the objective, reasonable person standard, and what is objectively reasonable from the perspective of the customer “depends on the nature and context of the parties’ bargain.” Because some customers were told by drivers that Domino’s retained the charge and was not part of their tip and because the fixed charge was sometimes within the normal range for a tip,…
A recent study claims that both sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) and artificially sweetened beverage (ASB) consumption was associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk in 66,118 women enrolled in a European prospective study. Guy Fagherazzi, et al., “Consumption of artificially and sugar-sweetened beverage and incident type 2 diabetes in the Etude Epidemiologique aupres des femmes de la Mutuelle Generale de l’Education Nationale—European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, February 2013. French researchers reported that “women in the highest quartiles of SSB and ASB consumers were at an increased risk of T2D” compared with those who did not drink SSBs or ASBs, although randomized trials are still needed “to prove a causal link between ASB consumption and T2D.” “SSB and ASB consumption were shown to be directly and indirectly (possibly mediated by adiposity) linked with increased risk of T2D,” concluded the study. “Extensive and lasting changes in…
Researchers with the University of Amsterdam’s School of Communication Research and Radboud University’s Behavioral Science Institute have published a study examining the effect of advergames on children’s actual food intake. Frans Folkvord, et al., “The effect of playing advergames that promote energy-dense snacks or fruit on actual food intake among children,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, February 2013. The study focused on 270 children asked to play an advergame that promoted an energy-dense snack, fruit, or a non-food product, and then monitored “the free intake of energy-dense snacks and fruit.” The study’s authors ultimately reported that “an advergame containing food cues increased general energy intake, regardless of the advertised brand or product type (energy-dense snacks or fruit), and this activity particularly increased the intake of energy-dense snack foods.” They also noted that participants who played the fruit advergame “did not consume more fruit than did those in the other groups,” instead…
A recent study has reportedly identified “a relationship between the percentage of outdoor food advertising and overweight/obesity.” Lenard Lesser, “Outdoor advertising, obesity, and soda consumption: a cross-sectional study,” BMC Public Health, January 2013. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the study relied on telephone survey data on adults aged 18 to 98 years “collected from 220 census tracts in Los Angeles and Louisiana,” comparing “self-reported information on BMI and soda consumption with a database of directly observed outdoor advertisements.” The results evidently showed that “the higher the percentage of outdoor advertisements promoting food or non-alcoholic beverages within a census tract, the greater the odds of obesity among its residents, controlling for age, race and educational status.” In particular, the study reported that “for every 10% increase in food advertising, there was a 1.05… greater odds of being overweight or obese,” so that “compared to an individual living in areas with no…
A new study has reportedly confirmed the presence of antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs) in manure samples harvested from swine farms in China, raising concerns about the widespread use of therapeutic antimicrobials in livestock and livestock feed. Yong-Guan Zhu, et al., “Diverse and abundant antibiotic resistant genes in Chinese swine farms,” PNAS, February 2013. Researchers apparently used high-capacity quantitative PCR arrays to assess “the type and concentrations of ARGs at three stages of manure processing to land disposal at three large-scale (10,000 animals per year) commercial swine farms.” The results from all the manure samples evidently revealed 149 unique ARGs, with “the top 63 ARGs being enriched 192-fold (median) up to 28,000-fold (maximum) compared with their respective antibiotic-free manure or soil controls.” In particular, the findings suggested that antibiotics and heavy metals found in the manures had the potential to co-select for resistance traits and further exacerbate “the risks of transfer of ARGs…
The Boston University School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) have published a study identifying alcohol brands allegedly consumed by underage youth. Michael Siegel, et al., “Brand-Specific Consumption of Alcohol Among Underage Youth in the United States,” Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, February 2013. According to a February 11, 2013, CAMY press release, the top 25 brands that study participants reported consuming during a 30-day period “account for nearly half of youth alcohol consumption,” with 27.9 percent of study participants reporting that they consumed Bud Light, 17 percent reporting that they consumed Smirnoff malt beverages, and 14.6 percent reporting that they consumed Budweiser. The study’s authors reportedly based their findings on Internet surveys completed by 1,032 participants aged 13 to 20 years who responded to questions about “their past 30-day consumption of 898 brands of alcohol among 16…
Girl Scouts of America is facing sharp criticism from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) for marketing new mango-flavored crème cookies as a “delicious” and “nutritious” snack, with “all of the nutrient benefits of eating cranberries, pomegranates, oranges, grapes, and strawberries.” In a letter to Girl Scouts of America CEO Anna Maria Chávez, CSPI asserts that by marketing these new cookies as a “delicious new way to get your vitamins,” the youth organization is “misleading its members and undermining their health.” CSPI further alleges that the cookies not only lack the “nutrient benefits” claimed on the Girl Scouts’ website, but contain “4 grams of heart disease promoting saturated fat and 11 grams of tooth-decaying sugars per three-cookie serving.” The health advocacy watchdog encourages the organization to stop marketing the cookies as “healthful” and seek other ways of fundraising.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has submitted a petition to the Food and Drug Administration, asking the agency to set limits on the amount of sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) allowed in beverages. CSPI also implores FDA to make the Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) status of HFCS and sucrose contingent on such limits, which would gradually be phased-in, while calling on the agency to (i) “revise the ‘Sugars’ line on Nutrition Facts labels to address ‘added sugars’”; (ii) “set targets for lower levels of added sugars in foods (apart from soft drinks and other beverages) that provide significant amounts of sugar to the general populations or population sub-groups”; (iii) “conduct a public education campaign to encourage consumers to consume less added sugars”; and (iv) “work with the food industry and interested federal, state, and local agencies to encourage reduced use and consumption of added…
According to a press report, the U.K. High Court has ordered Danone to remove any reference to “Greek yogurt” on the packaging for its newly launched product Danio®. The matter is currently before the court in litigation involving Greece-based yogurt maker Fage, which sued U.S.-based Chobani Inc. in November 2012 after that company launched its “Greek yogurt” product line in the United Kingdom. While Danone is not apparently required to remove offending products already on store shelves under the injunction, it began complying with the January 30, 2013, court order on products made after that date. In a statement Danone said, “This ruling is in place until the High Court has determined, as part of a separate case with another manufacturer, whether the use of ‘Greek yogurt’ is only possible for yogurt produced in Greece or if it refers to a particular type of yogurt made using a specific process.…
