The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has just released a report that discusses how the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) new overseas food safety offices are functioning and offers recommendations for enhancing strategic planning and developing a workforce plan “to help recruit and retain overseas staff.” Titled “Overseas Offices Have Taken Steps to Help Ensure Import Safety, but More Long-Term Planning Is Needed,” the report was prepared for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. According to the report, an FDA presence in foreign countries has improved the agency’s ability to build relationships with stakeholders abroad, to inspect foreign facilities and provide limited food safety training to overseas counterparts. Still, with only 42 total staff covering China, Europe, India, Latin America, and the Middle East, resources are apparently stretched and FDA has had some challenges with staffing. Foreign language capabilities and the domestic reintegration of staff serving abroad have apparently posed…
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The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Science Advisory Board has scheduled a public teleconference on November 22, 2010, to conduct a quality review of a draft board report that analyzes EPA’s February 2010 toxicological review of inorganic arsenic. The board forwarded its review comments to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on October 25. Among other matters, the draft comments note that EPA has only partially responded to its 2007 suggestions about factoring background dietary intake of inorganic arsenic into its “assessment of lung and bladder cancer risk associated with exposures to arsenic in drinking water.” In this regard, the board recommends that EPA make “more transparent the scientific basis of the exposure assumptions used” and enhance “the rigor and transparency of the sensitivity analysis.” EPA’s review, which apparently proposes a 17-fold increase in cancer potency from oral exposure to inorganic arsenic, has been developed under the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), and the…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released a 10-year tracking report that calls for increased focus on food safety practices in retail food establishments. A companion 2009 retail food report highlights the need for certified food protection managers to help achieve higher food-safety compliance levels. The 1998-2008 tracking report, which studied more than 800 retail food establishments in 1998, 2003 and 2008, focused on five key risk factors: (i) food from unsafe sources, (ii) poor personal hygiene, (iii) inadequate cooking, (iv) improper holding of food (time and temperature), and (v) contaminated food surfaces and equipment. According to an FDA press release, “continued improvements are needed across the board” regarding personal hygiene, holding of food and food surfaces and equipment. The 2009 report found that the presence of a certified food protection manager in full-service restaurants, delicatessens, seafood markets, and produce markets was correlated with “statistically significant higher compliance…
A recent study has reportedly claimed that dietary salt intake has remained constant in the U.S. population for the past five decades, raising questions about government efforts to restrict sodium consumption. Adam Bernstein and Walter Willett, “Trends in 24-h urinary sodium excretion in the United States, 1957–2003: a systematic review,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, November 2010. Researchers examined data on urine sodium excretions collected from 26,271 individuals by 38 MEDLINE studies published between 1957 and 2003. “In a multivariate random-effects model with study year, sex, age, and race, the study year was not associated with any significant change in sodium excretions,” states the abstract, which concludes that “[s]odium intake in the US adult population appears to be well above current guidelines and does not appear to have decreased with time.” The study was accompanied by an editorial questioning the effectiveness of a U.S. sodium reduction policy that targets, not…
“Sorry to scare you, but on Halloween much of the chocolate Americans will hand out to trick-or-treaters will be tainted by the labor of enslaved children,” writes Andrew Korfhage in this October 18, 2010, AlterNet article alleging that chocolate manufacturers have failed to eradicate child labor practices as promised. According to the author, Hershey’s and other companies pledged “nearly a decade ago to set up a system to certify that no producers in their supply chains use child labor,” but have yet to take any “meaningful action.” Korfhage credits a 2001 exposé with documenting the “scandalous conditions under which most U.S. chocolate is made,” noting that the effort spurred Representative Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) to introduce legislation seeking “slave-free” certification for all U.S. chocolate. “[B]ut before Harkin’s bill could pass the Senate, the chocolate industry had announced a voluntary four-year plan to clean up its own…
Green Century Capital Management, an investment advisory firm focused on environmentally responsible companies, and As You Sow, an advocacy group that promotes corporate accountability, have issued a 2010 report that ranks packaged food companies on their efforts to address bisphenol A (BPA). Building on a previous effort published in April 2009, Seeking Safer Packaging 2010 seeks to analyze “how companies are responding to this critical issue by disclosing information, exploring substitutes and committing to phase out BPA.” The findings apparently indicate “that notable progress has been made toward commercializing substitutes to BPA epoxy can linings,” with the “overwhelming majority” of the 26 survey respondents acknowledging “some efforts” to mitigate potential risks. The report notes, however, that outside some industry leaders, “some of the largest companies are the biggest laggards in seeking substitutes to and phasing out BPA.” According to the authors, “New scientific and investigative reports on the potential health…
Corporate Accountability International Deputy Director Leslie Samuelrich contends in a recent AlterNet article that fast food companies “spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year marketing a dangerous product to America’s children.” She claims the companies deny putting children at risk and, instead, blame parents for their children’s obesity problems. According to Samuelrich, nonprofits and government agencies that promote healthy eating habits are not engaged in a “fair fight” with the industry, noting for example that the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation spends $100 million annually to address childhood obesity, while “major food and beverage corporations spend at least $1.6 billion in the United States every year—16 times more—to convince kids to eat unhealthy food.” Corporate Accountability International, describing itself as a corporate watchdog, says that it has been “waging winning campaigns to challenge corporate abuse for more than 30 years.” It has conducted campaigns against the tobacco industry, publishing materials…
An appeals court in New Mexico has affirmed a trial court’s decision to dismiss claims that a horse rancher’s family became ill as a result of exposure to horse feed containing an antibiotic toxic to horses. Parkhill v. Alderman-Cave Milling & Grain Co., No. 29,120 (N. M. Ct. App., decided October 6, 2010). The parties settled claims that the feed sickened or killed horses from several of the plaintiffs’ horse ranches, and the trial court dismissed claims, as a sanction for discovery abuse, that the family’s personal health was affected by exposure to the feed. The appeals court did not reach the sanctions issue, finding that the lower court properly excluded the testimony of the plaintiffs’ experts. The toxin involved was monensin, an antibiotic that is a common additive to feed for livestock, but prohibited in horse feed. The plaintiffs alleged that immediately after contact with the feed they developed skin…
A federal court in New Jersey has granted the defendant’s unopposed motion to extinguish the stay in a lawsuit contending that Snapple beverage products are falsely advertised as “natural” because they contain high-fructose corn syrup, a purportedly non-natural ingredient. Holk v. Snapple Beverage Corp., No. 07-3018 (D.N.J., decided October 15, 2010) (unpublished). The court had stayed the litigation pending the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reaching a decision about the definition of “natural.” According to the court’s order, “The FDA in response has declined to address that issue.” Noting that another district court in New Jersey has lifted a stay imposed for the same reason in similar litigation (Coyle v. Hornell Brewing Co.), the court agreed to reopen the case, but refused to reinstate the motions that were pending when the case was “administratively terminated.” The court ordered the parties “to move again, upon new notices of motion and in accordance with…
A federal court in California has dismissed on preemption and standing grounds a number of state-law claims against The Quaker Oats Co. in a lawsuit alleging that the company falsely advertises its Chewy Bars® as containing “0 grams trans fat” when the ingredient list labeling includes hydrogenated vegetable oil. Chacanaca v. The Quaker Oats Co., No. 10-0502 (N.D. Cal., decided October 14, 2010). So ruling, the court lifted a discovery stay order and scheduled a case management conference for December 16, 2010. The defendant sought judgment on the pleadings at the outset of the action, arguing that “the doctrines of express preemption, primary jurisdiction, and Article III standing warrant immediate dismissal of the entire case.” The court agreed to dismiss all state-law deception claims involving the “0 grams trans fat” statement, the “good source” of calcium and fiber statements and a statement that the product contains whole grain oats but lacks…
