The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ordered 48 food companies “to file a special report” on their youth marketing practices in an effort “to measure the effect that self-regulation has had over the last three years,” according to FTC spokesperson Carol Jennings. The companies have 90 days to respond to the subpoenas, which will assist FTC in compiling a follow-up to its 2008 report titled “Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities, and Self-Regulation.” Additional information about this ongoing process appears in Issue 320 of this Update. See Advertising Age, September 1, 2010. “We are supportive of industry voluntary efforts to limit their marketing to kids and this will see whether more is needed,” stated Jennings, who noted that the commission is “not proposing any regulation” at this time. See Advertising Age, September 1, 2010.
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Responding to media reports that workers at the egg facilities linked to a recent nationwide Salmonella outbreak complained about food safety problems, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has written to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack asking whether these complaints were investigated and whether the agency has a process for reporting safety violations. Grassley acknowledges that USDA places only non-food safety personnel at egg farms to grade the eggs. Still, he asks whether “there is an established process for USDA employees to report food safety concerns to the FDA [Food and Drug Administration, which has the responsibility for food safety] when they fall outside of USDA’s jurisdiction?” According to press reports, two former Wright County Egg facility employees said they told USDA employees that they had observed problems such as leaking manure, rodents and dead chickens at the facilities. They also apparently claimed that USDA employees “would just turn…
A recent study has alleged a relationship between prenatal exposure to certain widely used pesticides and an increased risk of attention problems in preschool age kids. Brenda Eskenazi, et al., “PON1 and Neurodevelopment in Children from the CHAMACOS Study Exposed to Organophosphate Pesticides in Utero,” Environmental Health Perspectives, August 19, 2010. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health collected urine samples twice during the pregnancies of more than 300 Mexican-American women in agricultural communities and later evaluated their children at ages 3½ and 5 for symptoms of attention disorders. They concluded that prenatal organophosphate metabolite levels were “significantly linked” to attention troubles by age 5, especially among boys. “These studies provide a growing body of evidence that organophosphate pesticide exposure can impact human neurodevelopment, particularly among children,” co-author Brenda Eskenazi said in a UC Berkeley press statement, adding that the results warrant precautionary measures when handling food exposed…
Two recent studies have linked bisphenol A (BPA) to hormonal changes in men and genetic changes in female mice. Researchers in the first instance analyzed urine samples from 715 participants ages 20 to 74 enrolled in an Italian population study, measuring average daily exposure to BPA at approximately 5 micrograms. Tamara Galloway, et al., “Daily Bisphenol A Excretions and Associations with Sex Hormone Concentrations: Results from the InCHIANTI Adult Population,” Environmental Health Perspectives, August 2010. Although these levels were in line with other surveys, the results also showed that “higher daily BPA excretion was associated with higher total testosterone concentrations in men.” According to the authors, their findings are significant “because they provide a first report in a large-scale population of associations between elevated exposure to BPA and alterations in circulating hormone levels.” In addition, a second study has reportedly found evidence that low doses of BPA altered gene expression…
An Italian agronomist, frustrated by the government’s refusal to approve the planting of genetically modified (GM) crops, has apparently engaged in an act of civil disobedience by planting two fields of GM corn and publicizing his action with a news conference and YouTube® video. Environmentalists reportedly responded by descending on the fields near Vivaro, which had been seized by government officials; Greenpeace activists cut off the tassels in an effort to prevent the dissemination of pollen, and environmentalists with Ya Basta trampled the crop leaving signs stating “Danger—Contaminated—G.M.O.” According to a news source, while the European Union has approved the use of this particular seed, Italy requires farmers to submit any request to plant GM crops for government approval. To date, the Ministry of Agriculture has not apparently approved any GM crop for planting. The GM debate is particularly heated in Italy, where farmers are known for their specialized organic…
The National Advertising Review Board (NARB) has reportedly recommended that Heartland Sweeteners cease advertising its Ideal® sweetener as “more than 99 percent natural,” after finding that the claim could be misleading to consumers. The board, an appellate arm of the advertising industry’s self-regulatory system, apparently agreed with the National Advertising Division of the Council for Better Business Bureaus that the message conveyed by Heartland’s advertising is that most of the product’s sweetness comes from natural ingredients, when, in fact, the ingredient responsible for 80 percent of its sweetness is the artificial sweetener sucralose. The company issued a statement indicating that it “respectfully disagrees with the NARB’s decision and maintains that its ‘more than 99 percent natural’ claim is clear, truthful and not misleading.” Less than 1 percent of the sweetener consists of sucralose. Still, the company has reportedly indicated that it is reviewing its advertising and packaging and will take…
The National Academies’ Institute of Medicine Standing Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention will convene a public workshop on October 21, 2010, in Washington, D.C., to “highlight the evidence on current and potential legal strategies and their outcomes” in the prevention of childhood obesity. The gathering of researchers, policy makers, legal scholars, industry representatives, and public health advocates will discuss (i) “current legal strategies in use at national, state, and local levels and their outcomes”; (ii) “other public health initiatives that have used legal strategies to elicit societal and industry changes”; (iii) “the challenges involved in implementation”; (iv) “when legal strategies are needed and effective”; and (v) “opportunities for coordination and sharing information on the success of existing and future legal strategies."
After Chinese food safety authorities recently found milk powder laced with melamine, police have reportedly arrested three officials from the Dongyuan Dairy Factory in Qinghai province and three dairy suppliers from Hebei province. Another 41 suspects have apparently been detained. More than 225 tons of contaminated milk powder have been seized, and authorities believe it is leftover from the batches of melamine-tainted milk powder that should have been destroyed in 2008 when a massive contamination scandal sickened more than 300,000 children and was linked to the deaths of six infants. Producers added melamine to milk powder to increase its protein content, but the required protein level in dairy products has since been reduced to discourage the use of additives. According to a press report, investigators are seeking evidence that local oversight authorities may have been derelict in their duties and will punish those found responsible. Chinese consumers have reportedly lost confidence…
A magistrate judge has reportedly recommended that the trustee in bankruptcy for the Peanut Corp. of America (PCA), responsible for a Salmonella outbreak linked to nine deaths and hundreds of illnesses, distribute $12 million to resolve the tort claims of 120 individuals. The deal, which must be approved by a U.S. district court, involves insurance funds provided by Hartford Casualty Co. in 2009 and will apparently be supplemented by additional undisclosed funds from Kellogg Co. Virginia-based PCA recalled its peanut products and closed plants in Georgia and Texas following an outbreak that also led to a massive recall of processed foods containing the company’s peanut paste, such as snack products, cookie dough, granola bars, and dog biscuits. See Product Liability Law 360, August 26, 2010.
A putative class alleging that the extra virgin olive oil sold in the United States does not meet the “extra virgin” standard has filed consumer fraud claims against several of the largest importers of the product in a state court in Florida. Nachio v. Am. Rice, Inc., No. 10-33154 (Fla. Cir. Ct., filed August 13, 2010). Like the plaintiffs in a class action filed in California, named plaintiff Joseph Nachio refers to the June 2010 extra virgin olive oil study conducted by University of California at Davis’s Olive Oil Center researchers who concluded that the defendants’ products are not “extra virgin” olive oil. Additional information about that litigation appears in Issue 359 of this Update. Nachio contends that the time-sensitive process required to produce extra virgin olive oil makes it impossible for defendants to sell the quantities they do, and that they sell true extra virgin olive oil solely in countries…
