The European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA’s) Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA Panel) has initiated a public consultation on the draft scientific opinion on dietary reference values for fluoride. Citing evidence that supports fluoride’s role in the prevention of dental caries, the NDA Panel set the adequate intake (AI) for all sources, including non-dietary ones, based on “estimates of mean fluoride intakes of children via diet and drinking water with fluoride concentrations at which the caries preventative effect approached its maximum whilst the risk of dental fluorosis approached its minimum.” To this end, the panel set the AI of fluoride from all sources at 0.05 mg/kg body weight per day for both children and adults, including pregnant and lactating women. EFSA will accept comments on the proposed reference values until June 13, 2013.
Category Archives Legislation, Regulations and Standards
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued “a call for acrylamide occurrence data in food and beverages intended for human consumption collected outside official controls.” Part of the agency’s ongoing assessment of acrylamide levels in food and beverages, the latest request for data focuses on the following product categories: (i) french fries sold as ready to eat; (ii) potato crisps; (iii) pre-cooked french fries and potato products for homecooking; (iv) soft bread; (v) breakfast cereals; (vi) biscuits, crackers, crisp bread, and similar products; (vii) coffee and coffee substitutes; (viii) baby foods, “other than processed cereal based foods”; (ix) “processed cereal-based foods for infants and young children”; and (x) other products, including muesli and porridge, pastry and cakes, and savory snacks. EFSA has specified that “the analytical method used for the quantitative determination of acrylamide… should achieve a LOQ [level of quantification] of 30 µm/kg for bread and foods for…
Although a recent proposal to restrict the use of three neonicotinoids failed to gain support from the qualified majority of member states on an appeals committee, the European Commission (EC) has announced its intention to proceed with the plan as part of its bid to better protect honeybees. Basing its decision on a European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) scientific report that “identified ‘high acute risks’ for bees as regards exposure to dust in several crops such as maize, cereals and sunflower, to residue in pollen and nectar in crops like oilseed rape and sunflower and to guttation in maize,” the Commission has agreed to limit the use of clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiametoxam “for seed treatment, soil application (granules) and foliar treatment on bee- attractive plants and cereals” for a period of two years starting December 1, 2013. Under the plan, “the remaining authorized uses are available only to professionals,” with possible…
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine Michael Taylor said this week that the agency “is taking a fresh look at the potential impact that the totality of new and easy sources of caffeine may have on the health of children and adolescents, and if necessary, will take appropriate action.” According to Taylor, “[t]he only time that FDA explicitly approved the added use of caffeine in a food was for cola and that was in the 1950s.” He acknowledged that in today’s environment children and adolescents can be exposed to the substance “beyond anything FDA envisioned when it made the determination regarding caffeine in cola.” In 2010, FDA warned companies producing alcoholic malt beverages that the added caffeine was an unsafe additive and that seizure of their products was possible under federal law. The companies ceased producing the caffeinated products. Additional information about the 2010…
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued guidance to answer stakeholder questions about changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) slated to take effect on July 1, 2013. According to FTC, the new rules apply not only to the operators of Websites and mobile apps directed at children younger than age 13, but the operators of general audience sites and apps “with actual knowledge that they are collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under 13,” as well as third-party operators “that have actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information directly from users of another Web site or online service directed to children.” In addition to describing the types of personal information covered by COPPA, which for the first time will class IP addresses as persistent identifiers, the guidance addresses, among other things, (i) new online privacy policy rules, including requirements for displaying the policy; (ii)…
After a state court in California granted the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC’s) request for preliminary injunction and ordered Cal/EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) to remove bisphenol A (BPA) from the list of chemicals known to the state to cause reproductive toxicity, OEHHA did so. OEHHA had argued that ACC’s request to enjoin OEHHA from “listing, or taking any further action in listing” BPA was moot because the Proposition 65 (Prop. 65) listing action took effect April 11, but the court said it had the authority to order OEHHA to remove the chemical from the list. According to the court, ACC demonstrated that it had a reasonable probability of prevailing on the merits of its claim that the National Toxicology Program report on which OEHHA relied for its listing did not identify BPA as causing reproductive toxicity. “[T]here was no definitive statement that BPA is a developmental toxicant…
Citing the loss of millions of euros, the Danish government is reportedly abandoning its 80-year tax on soft drinks because consumers are crossing the border to shop in Germany instead. “This decision is the result of concerted efforts to highlight the negative impact of the tax,” said Niels Hald, secretary general of the Danish soft drinks association, Bryggeriforeningen. “In taking this step the Danish government acknowledged the regressive nature of the tax, its negative impact on regional jobs close to the borders and the adverse environmental consequences of border trade.” Removal of the tax will reportedly take place in two stages, with a 50-percent reduction as of July 1, 2013, and full elimination as of January 1, 2014. The decision comes months after the Danish government repealed a similar tax on foods with high concentrations of saturated fat and stopped a proposed sugar tax last year. See UNESDA News Release, April…
The consumer regulatory agency of Sao Paulo, Brazil, has reportedly fined McDonald’s US $1.6 million for allegedly marketing to children. Procon SP has claimed that franchisee Arcos Dorados Holdings Inc. violated the state’s consumer code by using children’s characters and toys to promote Happy Meals®. “This is not an isolated case,” a Procon SP lawyer was quoting as saying. “There’s no need to appeal as they do to children without the maturity or the rationality to enter the market as consumers.” In 2011, the Brazilian Consumer Defense Foundation fined the fast-food corporation US$1.8 million after a nonprofit organization complained that Happy Meal® incentives encouraged “unhealthy eating habits” among children. A McDonald’s spokesperson has since told media sources that the company plans to appeal the latest ruling. Additional details about the Consumer Defense Foundation matter appear in Issue 420 of this Update. See Law360 and Reuters, April 23, 2013.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration have announced a June 18, 2013, public meeting in Washington, D.C., to provide information and receive public comments on agenda items and draft U.S. positions for discussion at the 36th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in Rome on July 1-5. Agenda items include (i) a report by the chair of the 68th session of the executive committee; (ii) revocation of existing Codex standards and related texts; (iii) “Amendments to the Codex Standards and Related Texts”; (iii) “Financial and Budgetary Matters”; and (iv) chair and vice chair elections and coordinator appointments. See Federal Register, April 23, 2013.
Several dozen trade associations representing the interests of food and beverage producers, processors, shippers, and retailers have submitted their concerns about the Obama administration’s proposed 2014 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) budget, which includes $59 million in food facility registration and inspection fees to fund FDA activities under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). In their April 17, 2013, letter to the chair and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, the industry groups call for FDA to submit requests for FSMA implementation funding through the appropriations process, “rather than seeking authorization of new regulatory taxes, which Congress has repeatedly rejected.”
