U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have reportedly joined the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network and a coalition of federal, state and local public health organizations in urging U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin to investigate the alleged association between sugar-sweetened drinks and rising obesity rates. According to a September 12, 2012, letter, the senators have asked Benjamin to conduct a study that would determine “the impact of sugary drinks on rates of American obesity and whether public health proposals that target sugary beverages will positively impact public health.” “As America’s waistline has expanded, so too has our access to sugary drinks,” states the letter. “Beverages like soda, sports drinks, lemonade, juice drinks, and sweetened teas are cheap and available everywhere. Doctors and public health experts recommend limiting and reducing the consumption of sugary drinks, especially in children, but kids and adults drink twice…
Category Archives Legislation, Regulations and Standards
The Center for Food Safety and Center for Environmental Health have filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) alleging that the agency has unlawfully delayed adopting implementing regulations under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Ctr. for Food Safety v. Hamburg, No. 12-4529 (N.D. Cal., filed August 29, 2012). According to the complaint, FDA has missed seven statutory deadlines thus “failing to implement FSMA’s major food safety regulations.” Characterizing the failure as “an abdication of the agency’s fundamental responsibilities,” the plaintiffs claim that this delay “is putting millions of lives at risk from contracting foodborne illnesses.” They also sued the Office of Management and Budget, claiming that it has also missed statutory deadlines in failing to approve the implementing regulations that FDA has submitted for its review. The complaint recites Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in six Americans…
Following the Irish Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) decision to allow genetically modified (GM) potato trials in County Carlow, a group of environmentalists and organic producers reportedly mounted a legal challenge under the Aarhus Convention which allows environmental legal issues to be pursued under a “non-prohibitively expensive order.” According to a press report, Mr. Justice Gerard Hogan indicated that he lacked jurisdiction to make such an order, but gave the group leave to provide short notice to the EPA of its intention to challenge the costs issue. Ratified in June 2012 and not yet evidently part of Irish law, article 9 of the convention apparently gives those challenging “critical environmental decisions” the ability to be heard in court without the threat of large legal costs if they lose. EPA’s consent to the GM trials is reportedly subject to eight conditions that include reporting requirements and trial management, and the land will be…
The City of Lakewood, Colorado, has reportedly adopted an ordinance that will subject soft drinks and candy to a 3 percent city sales tax. The tax code change was apparently considered and approved during the city council’s August 27, 2012, meeting. The ordinance is intended to align the city’s taxation of food with the state by exempting sales of food for immediate consumption from sales tax, while taxing soda and candy. According to a news source, the change takes effect in 30 days. See ABC7News, TheDenverChannel.com, August 28, 2012.
The Center for Food Safety has issued a paper critical of the draft report prepared by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture (AC21), which was scheduled to meet August 27-28, 2012, to discuss the draft. According to the advocacy organization, USDA “has increasingly strayed from its role as ‘enhanc[er of] economic opportunities for US farmers and ranchers,’ by continuing to allow genetically engineered (GE) seeds, pollen, and plants to contaminate our nation’s farms without restraint.” In particular, the center calls AC21’s “co-existence” approach to organic, conventional and GE farming “a thinly veiled attempt to sanction allowable amounts of GE contamination in food by establishing a universal GE contamination threshold.” The paper contends that compensating conventional and organic farmers whose crops are contaminated by drifting GE pollen will not address the losses sustained when other countries ban all U.S. seed and crop imports. “Even…
Citizens for Health has filed a citizen’s petition with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requesting that the agency amend its high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) regulations. The requested changes would require food producers (i) using HFCS, to identify its concentration f ructose on product labels (e.g., HFCS with 42 percent fructose would be labeled “high fructose corn syrup 42”), and (ii) manipulating the mount of fructose in HFCS “to a different concentration than a standardized blend of 42 or 55,” to also incorporate the concentration into he ingredient name (e.g., HFCS with 90 percent fructose would be labeled “high fructose corn syrup 90”). Citizens for Health also asked that FDA initiate enforcement actions against food companies using HFCS with fructose in amounts other than 42 or 55 percent because these are the concentrations FDA has apparently designated as generally recognized as safe. According to the petition, numerous online articles…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued its “Guidance for Industry: Questions and Answers Regarding the Final Rule, Prevention of Salmonella Enteritidis in Shell Eggs During Production, Storage, and Transportation.” Comments may be submitted at any time, although the guidance, with nonbinding recommendations for complying with a final rule that took effect in September 2009, has incorporated comments submitted after the draft guidance was published. Presented in a Q&A format, the guidance addresses compliance dates, the egg rule’s coverage, definitions, Salmonella Enteritidis prevention measures, testing, sampling, and registration requirements. See Federal Register, August 21, 2012. Noting that Americans consume 242 eggs per capita annually, New York University Nutrition Professor Marion Nestle draws attention to the guidance in her blog and cites a recent Canadian study claiming an association between the consumption of egg yolks and plaque formation in coronary arteries. She suggests that we should not “be eating so many eggs,”…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a final rule that amends regulations about concentrations of compounds of carcinogenic concern in the diet of food-producing animals and residues of carcinogenic concern in specific edible tissues. The changes clarify certain definitions “to enable the Center for Veterinary Medicine to consider allowing the use of alternative procedures to satisfy the DES [Diethylstilbestrol] Proviso without requiring the development of a second, alternative, set of terminology.” The changes take effect September 21, 2012. Among other matters, the amendment will change the existing emphasis in 21 CFR Part 500 on “no significant increase in the risk of cancer to the human consumer” to an emphasis on “the specific 1 in 1 million risk of cancer to the test animals approach.” See Federal Register, August 22, 2012.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has responded to Senator Dick Durbin’s (D-Ill.) letter requesting that the agency take regulatory action “to address the rising health concerns around energy drinks” purportedly containing high levels of caffeine and other ingredients such as taurine, guarana and ginseng. Among other matters, in its August 10, 2012, letter, FDA suggests that research to date shows that “even when the consumption of energy drinks is considered, most of the caffeine consumed [in the United States] comes from what is naturally present in coffee and tea.” For most healthy adults, according to FDA, caffeine intake up to 400 mg per day is not associated with untoward health effects. Additional details about Durbin’s letter appear in Issue 435 of this Update. FDA’s generally recognized as safe (GRAS) regulation for caffeine applies to cola-type beverages; the agency “has not challenged the use of caffeine in other beverages at…
A coalition of advocacy organizations has filed five complaints with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against companies including McDonald’s Corp., General Mills, Inc. and Doctor’s Associates, Inc., calling for an investigation into Websites they purportedly use to promote food and TV programs to children. According to the coalition, the food-related websites— HappyMeal.com, ReesesPuffs.com, TrixWorld.com, and SubwayKids. com—violate the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by encouraging children to provide their friends’ email addresses and create videos promoting branded products to send to their friends. According to the coalition, “tell-a friend,” or “viral marketing,” is profitable given the effectiveness of word-of-mouth advertising and the opportunity to create “lifetime customers.” The coalition is also requesting that FTC update existing COPPA regulations “to include data collection and storage of photographs online from children, as well as placement of cookies used for types of behavioral advertising.” Claiming that “several of the child-directed websites we…
