As members of the 111th Congress actively consider how to address food-safety issues and debate in committee whether splitting the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in two would best reform federal oversight, new bills addressing food health and safety continue to be introduced. The most recent include: H.R. 1324 – Introduced March 5, 2009, by Representative Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), this bill would update national school nutrition standards for foods and beverages not included in school meals. The proposed legislation, with 101 co-sponsors, was referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor. H.R. 1332 – Introduced March 5, 2009, by Representative Jim Costa (D-Calif.), this measure, titled the “Safe Food Enforcement, Assessment, Standards, and Targeting Act of 2009” or “Safe FEAST Act of 2009,” would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by strengthening FDA’s authority to inspect records during food-related emergencies, recall contaminated products, accredit food-testing laboratories, and…
Category Archives Issue
In a move that has reportedly angered some industry representatives, the U.S. government has set up a working group to study how food is marketed to youth younger than age 18. Currently, food manufacturers are encouraged to abide by industry-imposed rules for food advertising to children younger than 12. The Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children was announced last week with President Barack Obama’s 2009 omnibus appropriations bill. The group will examine whether the government should set standards for determining which foods are healthy and appropriate to market to youth as old as 17. A Grocery Manufacturers Association spokesperson was quoted as saying, “This proposal is completely unnecessary. Taxpayer dollars and agency time could be made much better use of. Besides, the proposal—the way it is written—not only reinvents the wheel, it does so poorly with broad, misdirected language that goes far beyond marketing to children. Too far.”…
President Barack Obama (D) has reportedly tapped former New York City Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Baltimore Health Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein to act as her deputy. A bioterrorism expert and physician, Hamburg previously served as an assistant health secretary in the Clinton administration and helped decrease the rate of drug-resistant tuberculosis during her tenure at the New York City Health Department. Her selection has drawn praise from consumer watchdogs, food safety advocates and medical groups such as the American Public Health Association, which said both nominations reflect Obama’s “commitment to protecting consumer safety.” “You’ve got an organization that’s demoralized and one that really wants to enhance its scientific integrity,” an association spokesperson was quoted as saying. “[Hamburg’s] all about integrity and science . . . She can be tough when she needs to be, and she’s going to need to be real…
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has published a notice seeking public comment on its latest proposal to add candidate chemicals to the state’s Proposition 65 (Prop. 65) list of chemicals known to the state to pose a cancer or reproductive health risk. Aspartame is among the 38 chemicals OEHHA is considering adding to the list. Comments on the proposal must be submitted by May 5, 2009, and the agency’s Carcinogen Identification Committee will meet May 29 to “provide OEHHA with advice on the prioritization of these chemicals for possible preparation of hazard identification materials.” According to OEHHA, “[n]o listing decisions will be made concerning these chemicals at the May 29 meeting.”
A Suffolk County, New York, legislative committee on March 3, 2009, voted unanimously to prohibit the packaging chemical bisphenol A (BPA) from polycarbonate baby bottles. According to published reports, the bill goes before the full Suffolk County Legislature next week. The vote would reportedly ban BPA from baby bottles and cups sold in the county that are intended for children ages 3 or younger. Similar bills are under consideration in Washington state, Minnesota and Connecticut. See Foodproductiondaily.com, March 4, 2009.
Chinese legislators this week passed a new food safety law that consolidates hundreds of regulations, imposes stricter penalties for safety violations and establishes a national commission based in the Ministry of Health to monitor the food and beverage industry, improve standards and authorize product recalls. Effective June 1, 2009, the law will also hold celebrities liable for endorsing faulty products; require farmers to abide by stricter rules pertaining to pesticides, fertilizers, veterinary drugs, and feed additives; and implement record-keeping requirements for farmers raising crops and livestock for human consumption. Loopholes in the Chinese food safety system attracted international attention last year when melamine-tainted infant formula produced by the state-owned Sanlu Group dairy sickened thousands of children. “At present, China’s food security situation remains grim, with high risks and contradictions popping out,” the ministry stated in a press release. See Marler Blog, March 1, 2009. The new law has already drawn criticism…
EU environment ministers have reportedly upheld the sovereign right of nations to outlaw genetically modified (GM) crops even when approved by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The European Commission (EC) had asked the ministers to overturn Austria’s and Hungary’s ban on a GM maize produced by Monsanto, but 22 states backed the countries’ measures over the opposition of the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Finland, and Sweden. Green MEP Caroline Lucas then accused the commission of trying to “bulldoze through their pro-GM agenda in spite of public opposition.” “I just hope that [EC President José Manuel Barroso] will realize the commission needs to change its position of GMOs,” Lucas was quoted as saying. The ministers will next week consider a similar GM maize ban pending in France and Greece. Although the European Union currently imports animal feed made with GM crops, member states have balked at allowing farmers to cultivate…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) has announced an opportunity for soybean producers to request a referendum on the Soybean Promotion and Research Order (the Order), as authorized by the Soybean Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Act. The referendum would require participation by 10 percent of 589,182 eligible producers, provided that one-fifth of the requests do not come from any one state. If these conditions are met, AMS will hold a referendum within 1 year of the request and publish the results in the Federal Register. The agency will accept referendum requests between May 4 and 29, 2009. See Federal Register, March 4, 2009. AMS earlier this week issued a final rule amending the Soybean Promotion, Research and Consumer Information program, also known as the soybean checkoff program, to update the number of eligible soybean producers. The USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) based its data on information…
U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) have introduced the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510), which would expand and strengthen the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) authority to address the safety of the nation’s food supply. The proposal, which has reportedly attracted the support of industry and consumer groups alike, would increase the frequency of food plant inspections, expand FDA’s access to records, give the agency the authority to recall tainted food products, and require the creation of a national strategy to protect the food supply from terrorist threats and intentional contamination. Originally introduced in July 2008 with many of the same sponsors, the bill would require all food facilities to have HACCP plans in effect and allow the FDA to suspend the registration of any food facility that “has a reasonable probability of causing serious adverse health consequences or…
Health Canada has published the results of a survey it conducted to detect and measure levels of bisphenol A (BPA) in canned beverages such as soft drinks, tea and energy drinks. The federal agency detected the chemical in nearly all of the samples tested, with some of the highest levels appearing in energy drinks containing caffeine. Health Canada scientists detected no BPA in two tonic water products and one energy drink product. According to the survey, “It is believed that quinine hydrochloride, which is commonly used as a bittering agent in tonic type drinks, may interfere with BPA extraction.” While the levels found in the beverages were below regulatory limits, some scientists are reportedly concerned that the large number of sources of exposure may pose cumulative risks to human health. University of Missouri biologist Frederick vom Saal contends that harmful effects of the chemical, which mimics the effects of estrogen in…
