According to a news source, a company that makes high-priced cookware and targets its sales to Spanish-speaking immigrants in the Los Angeles area has agreed to settle litigation accusing it of fraudulently claiming that its products could cure diseases ranging from cancer and Alzheimer’s to diabetes and heart disease. California v. Rena Ware Int’l, Inc., No. BC437981 (Cal. Super. Ct., Los Angeles Cty., settlement reached July 1, 2010). California Attorney General Jerry Brown brought the lawsuit, alleging unfair competition and false advertising. Sales representatives reportedly told consumers that the cookware reduced high blood pressure by removing hormones from meat while it cooked. Under the agreement, the manufacturer will pay a total of $625,000 to resolve the dispute and must ensure, by means of an independent monitor, that it will refrain from using either false information or high-pressure sales tactics. See Mealey’s Personal Injury Report, July 12, 2010.
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The International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO) has released a July 2010 report on the PolMark Project, a survey commissioned by the European Union to examine how member states regulate food and beverage marketing to children. According to IASO, “The researchers found that two-thirds of the 53 countries in the region now have official policies on the need to restrict the promotion of unhealthy food to children, a dramatic increase since a similar survey five years earlier. However, most countries are depending on self-regulation by industry and only a few have brought in specific statutory measures.” The report apparently notes that 92 percent of key stakeholders interviewed in 11 countries “believed there was a link between advertising and child obesity.” In addition, (i) two-thirds “believed current controls on marketing to children were not strong enough”; (ii) more than 80 percent “thought that restrictions on advertising for certain types…
The UK Department of Health (DH) has announced its intention to preserve the Food Standards Agency (FSA) as a non-ministerial authority responsible for food safety policy and enforcement. According to a July 20, 2010, press release, DH will take over England’s nutrition policies, including those related to (i) food labeling and health claims; (ii) dietetic food and food supplements; (iii) calorie information in catering establishments; and (iv) product reformulation to reduce salt, saturated fat, sugar, and portion sizes. DH will also conduct nutrition research and work with the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, while the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will handle country-of-origin labeling, other types of non-food-safety labeling, and food composition policies used to characterize products such as honey, jam, chocolate, and ice cream. On matters of food safety, however, advice from FSA experts “would be final.” The authority will also retain oversight of nutrition and…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has called for comments on a proposed information collection included in a guidance document titled “Preparing a Claim of Categorical Exclusion or an Environmental Assessment for Submission to the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition [CFSAN].” Under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, FDA must consider the environmental impact of its actions, including those related to food contact substance notifications; exemption requests for food additives; and petitions for GRAS affirmation, food additives and food colorings, food labeling, health claims, and nutrient content claims. FDA has since, however, amended its rulemaking to exclude certain classes of actions “that do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment.” Instead of routinely requiring information about the production of FDA-regulated articles, FDA has eliminated the previously required environmental assessment (EA) and provided guidance “to help industry submit a claim of categorical exclusion…
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued a notice requesting voluntary participation in a program designed to improve compliance with regulations pertaining to the importation, interstate movement and environmental release of genetically engineered (GE) organisms. APHIS conducted a pilot Biotechnology Quality Management System (BQMS) Program in 2009 and has since refined its draft audit standard and procedures and program training sessions. The program is intended to help all regulated entities, including universities, small businesses and large companies, to develop “sound management practices through the creation and implementation of a customized biotechnology quality management system.” Participants will be expected to attend several training sessions, develop a BQMS within their organization, establish procedures addressing the movement and field testing of regulated GE organisms, participate in evaluations, and submit to a third-party verification audit. Letters of interest may be submitted at any time, but APHIS encourages submission as soon as…
In response to an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) request, the Business Roundtable and The Business Council have prepared a report with a list of laws and regulations that the nation’s business leaders reportedly believe “have a dampening effect on economic growth and job creation.” Among the business groups’ concerns are proposals that would affect how the food and beverage sectors conduct business. Titled “Policy Burdens Inhibiting Economic Growth,” the report cited Food and Drug Administration food labeling policies, proposals to increase beverage taxes, pending changes to food safety laws, proposed nutrition standards, and youth marketing initiatives as areas of particular concern. OMB Watch, an organization dedicated to “equitable regulatory and budgetary processes,” questioned the timing of the White House invitation, claiming that recent economic and environmental catastrophes were due to lax regulation and not “because government has been too zealous.” Acknowledging that OMB may have initiated the dialogue as…
Representative John Dingell (D-Mich.) recently sent a public letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), blaming her pursuit of a bisphenol A (BPA) ban for stalling the Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510). Feinstein has apparently sought to include “controversial language” in the bill that would prohibit BPA in food and beverage packaging. According to Dingell, “recent press accounts” have suggested that Feinstein’s stance has endangered the fate of the legislation, which would grant the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) new authority to monitor the national food supply and enforce regulations. Other food safety advocates such as Safe Table Our Priority have reportedly joined Dingell in asking Feinstein to drop her agenda. Although Dingell noted the ongoing disagreement over BPA’s safety, he nevertheless urged his fellow lawmaker to negotiate with industry interests. “It would be calamitous if a bill to protect American consumers from unsafe food cannot become law this year…
A federal court in New Jersey has reportedly stayed for six months consumer fraud litigation against the company that makes Arizona Iced Tea® beverages and has asked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to determine whether high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) qualifies as a “natural” ingredient. Coyle v. Hornell Brewing Co., No. 08-2797 (D.N.J., stay order entered June 15, 2010). Claiming that these beverages are deceptively marketed as “100% Natural” despite containing HFCS, the plaintiff alleges violation of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, unjust enrichment and common-law restitution, and breach of express and implied warranties. The court issued the stay rather than dismiss the putative class action outright as requested by the defendants on the basis of the doctrine of primary jurisdiction. According to a news source, the court acknowledged that “categorizing HFCS as either natural or artificial for the purpose of food and beverage labeling does not fall within…
This article examines the fallout from Kellogg Co.’s recall of 28 million cereal boxes that, according to a public statement, contained “elevated levels of hydrocarbons, including methyl naphthalene, normally found in the paraffin wax and film in the liners.” The company voluntarily pulled the products after receiving complaints about an “off-flavor and smell,” which caused nausea and other gastrointestinal ailments in some consumers. Schor highlights the failure of Congress to pass reform measures that would allow the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue mandatory recalls. “[T]he legislation sits in limbo in the upper chambers as industry groups chafe at Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) bid to ban another chemical with an unclear safety history, bisphenol A, from food containers,” she writes. Citing a recent Environmental Working Group (EWG) report that underscores the potential toxicity of methyl naphthalene, Schor raises questions about the overall safety of food packaging. EWG has “urged…
La Vida Locavore blogger Jill Richardson claims in a July 6 AlterNet article that a recent webinar touting a “perspective on pesticide residues” was benignly marketed to federal and state health officials by a “self-described non-profit organization,” the Alliance for Food and Farming. While the Alliance’s website does not identify its supporters, Richardson asserts that the organization is an industry “front group” representing California-based farm and pesticide interests, one of which apparently argued in the film Food, Inc. that “foods containing clones should not be labeled.” “[F]ront groups are a common vehicle industry uses to delude, confuse, and sometimes overtly defraud the public,” Richardson says. She cites author Anna Lappé’s book Diet for a Hot Planet highlighting a 1969 tobacco industry internal memo that discusses “establishing a controversy,” and Lappé opines that “The food industry long ago saw the benefits of fomenting confusion; confusion defuses public outcry about our toxic…
