California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has reportedly delayed a decision about whether to list bisphenol A (BPA) under Proposition 65 because it lacks sufficient staff to complete needed research. OEHHA’s Developmental & Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee (DART) was apparently scheduled to decide whether to include BPA on the list of chemicals known to the state to be reproductive toxicants at a November 20, 2008, meeting, but the chemical, which is used in plastic bottles and to line metal cans, was removed from the agenda and will be addressed at “the earliest possible meeting date following the meeting on Nov. 20.” This may occur a year from now because the DART committee meets annually. See Inside Cal/EPA, October 31, 2008. Meanwhile, the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit consumer and environmental advocacy organization, has apparently called on major food companies and infant formula manufacturers to “immediately…
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California residents this week voted overwhelmingly in favor of Proposition 2 (Prop. 2), an animal welfare measure banning the use of some crates for hens, pregnant pigs and veal calves that do not allow the animals to turn around, lie down or extend their limbs. In addition, the law will require farmers to build pens and cages allowing full range of motion in an effort to eliminate high-density battery cages and reduce Salmonella outbreaks. Prop. 2, which takes effect in 2015, also levies fines of $1,000 or six months in jail for violations. Because most of the state's pork and veal producers have already prohibited confined cages, some agricultural economists expect Prop. 2 to have a disproportionate impact on the $323-million egg industry. The industry-backed California for Safe Food group spent $8.5 million to oppose the measure, as egg farmers expressed concern that the cost of retrofitting their operations will…
The Chinese government has reportedly deployed 369,000 inspectors in a nationwide crackdown on melamine-tainted animal feed. Regulators apparently destroyed more than 3,600 tons of animal feed and shuttered 239 feed operations after food safety tests revealed that eggs in three provinces contained high levels of the industrial plasticizer, which some unscrupulous manufacturers use as an artificial filler in animal feed. In September, melamine-laced infant formula also sickened more than 50,000 infants, prompting an international recall and widespread concerns about Chinese food exports. Nestle SA has since sent 20 research specialists to its Beijing center to strengthen food testing protocols for melamine and other chemicals. “It is illegal for any individual or any enterprise to add melamine into feed, and we will crack down uncompromisingly on melamine,” said Wang Zhicai, director of the animal husbandry and livestock bureau at the Agriculture Ministry. See Bloomberg.com, October 31, 2008; The New York Times, November 1…
The U.K. Food Standards Agency (FSA) has advised pregnant women to reduce their daily caffeine consumption to 200 milligrams – or approximately two mugs of coffee. The agency previously suggested a maximum intake of 300 mg, but lowered its recommendation after the British Medical Journal published an FSA-funded study concluding that a further reduction would lessen the health risks to unborn children. “This is because too much caffeine might result in a baby having a lower birth weight than it should, which can increase the risk of some health conditions later in life,” stated FSA in a November 3, 2008, press release. FSA has since issued guidelines intended to help expectant mothers gauge their caffeine consumption. The agency has calculated that 200 mg is roughly equal to (i) two mugs of instant coffee; (ii) one mug of filtered coffee; (iii) two mugs of tea; (iv) five cans of cola; (v) two…
The Canadian Cattlemen’s Association and the Canadian Pork Council, representing some 100,000 producers, are reportedly calling on their government to bring legal challenges under the North American Free Trade Agreement and WTO rules to the new country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law that took effect in the United States on October 1, 2008. According to the beef and pork producers, the law has begun shutting their livestock out of U.S. markets, where domestic and foreign animals must now be segregated in feedlots and packing plants. Origination documentation and disease-free tags are also apparently adding to producer costs. The Canadian producers claim that some companies are refusing to import Canadian cattle altogether and others will slaughter them only on certain days, a situation that threatens to cost the Canadian producers some $800 million annually. In a letter to Canada’s prime minister, the Cattlemen’s president reportedly said, “Our preliminary estimate is that COOL is reducing…
The Office of U.S. Trade Representative has issued a request for comments about potential alternative products imported from the European Union (EU) that are under consideration for the imposition of increased duties. The action arises from an ongoing dispute with the EU over its refusal to allow imports of U.S. meat and meat products produced from animals treated with artificial growth hormones. According to the U.S. Trade Representative, “The [World Trade Organization] found over 10 years ago that the EU’s ban on U.S. beef was not supported by science and was thus inconsistent with WTO rules. When the EU failed to bring its measures into compliance with its WTO obligations, the United States imposed tariffs on certain imports from the EU, as authorized by the WTO. Since that time, we have been trying to resolve this dispute with the EU without changing the composition of tariffs. It is now time…
Cornell University researchers have reportedly developed a nanoscale application that could lead to rapid testing for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES), which partly funded the project, recently highlighted the National Research Initiative (NRI) as a step toward improving the safety of the food supply. “A better method of prion detection is necessary to allay public fears, ensure the safety of the nation’s food supply, and enhance international trade,” stated a CSREES press release. The preliminary testing device is based on a nanotechnology device known as a resonator created by Harold Craighead and his colleagues at Cornell University in conjunction with Richard Montagna at Innovative Biotechnologies International, Inc. “When prions bind to the resonator’s silicon sensor, it changes the vibrational resonant frequency of the device,” according to CSREES. This sensor is able to detect prions in saline solution “at…
Researchers in Kansas and Missouri report that chronic medication use in children increased over a three-year period across all therapies studied, with the prevalence rate for type 2 antidiabetic agents doubling. Emily Cox, et al., “Trends in the Prevalence of Chronic Medication Use in Children: 2002-2005,” Pediatrics, November 2008. The study involved a sampling of commercially insured children, ages 5 to 19, and medications for asthma, attention-deficit disorder, depression, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. The researchers suggest that the increasing use of type 2 antidiabetic drugs was driven by 166 percent and 135 percent increases in prevalence among girls aged 10 to 14 and 15 to 19, respectively. Type 2 diabetes was once known as adult-onset diabetes, because it is linked to obesity, but it is appearing more in children. The study concludes with a call for more research into the factors responsible for the trends, “including growth in…
This article examines the effect of “shaky consumer spending” on the organic industry, which is “starting to show signs that a decades-long sales boom may be coming to an end.” New York Times reporter Andrew Martin states that, according to the Nielsen Co., organics sales growth has declined from 20 percent per year in recent years to 4 percent in the latest four-week period ending October 4. “If a slowdown continues,” he writes, “it could have broad implications beyond the organic industry, whose success has spawned a growing number of products with values-based marketing claims, from fair trade coffee to hormone-free beef to humanely raised chickens.” Industry experts apparently anticipate that as organics begin to lose less committed consumers, products marketed to children will nevertheless “continue to thrive because they appeal to parents’ concerns about health.” In addition, shoppers have become more selective about their purchases, “buying four or five products…
The Grocery Manufacturers Association, American National Standards Institute and other organizations are co-sponsoring a conference titled “Bolstering Consumer Confidence: Identifying Essential Third Party Food Safety Audit Criteria,” December 2-3, 2008, in Washington, D.C. Among the conference speakers is the administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), who will discuss “his agency’s perspective on third party audits and the issue of country equivalency.” Other sessions will address Food and Drug Administration requirements for a comprehensive third party audit, harmonizing the global food safety system, and World Trade Organization concerns about private standards and third-party certification.
