The New York City Council has reportedly voted to ban the sale of foie gras produced from force-fed animals within the city, citing cruelty concerns. The law, which will take effect in 2022, will impose a $2,000 fine per violation and applies only to force-fed foie gras. "[D]etermining whether foie gras was illegally produced may present an enforcement challenge," The New York Times notes; "documentary" evidence will be required to show that foie gras was produced without force-feeding.
Category Archives Legislation, Regulations and Standards
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have announced a joint warning letter sent to Rooted Apothecary LLC focused on the potential benefits that the company claimed its cannabidiol (CBD) products could provide. "The Agency continues to be concerned about the proliferation of products asserting to contain CBD that are marketed for therapeutic or medical uses without having been reviewed for safety and effectiveness by the FDA as is required by law and to protect the public health," the letter states. "There are many unanswered questions about the science, safety, effectiveness and quality of unapproved products containing CBD. Without this information, we are unable to ensure that these products will not cause harm to people who use them." The agencies warn that Rooted Apothecary is marketing unapproved drugs because it advertises its CBD-infused products as helping to diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat or prevent a number…
The Center for Food Safety (CFS) has submitted a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) Office of Food Additive Safety arguing that the sale of "uncooked Impossible Burgers to consumers in grocery stores" is unlawful because FDA "received timely objections to the agency's approval of Impossible Foods' color additive petition." CFS argues that its six objections to FDA's ruling should have automatically stayed the effective date of the rule. The letter describes grocery stores' advertising promising the availability of Impossible Burgers, asserting that "such sales are unlawful until there is a valid color additive regulation in place." The advocacy group concludes by urging FDA to "issue a recall notice to these and other retailers that are currently selling uncooked Impossible Burgers in their grocery stores."
The University of Connecticut's Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity has released a report on the state of nutrition and marketing for beverages targeted to children. The researchers identified "common practices that may confuse parents about the ingredients and healthfulness of sweetened children's drinks," including the "widespread use of low-calorie sweeteners," the "sugar content and calories" and the serving sizes of "100% juice products" that "contained more than the recommended maximum daily amount of juice for toddlers." The report recommends that "manufacturers should develop and market unsweetened plain waters for children," that media companies with children's programming "should implement nutrition standards that comply with expert recommendations that can be advertised to children in their media" and that retailers should "clearly label children's drinks that contain added sweeteners."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published a set of changes to the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances, which documents the synthetic materials allowed or banned in the production and handling of organic agriculture. The amendments include the addition of "elemental sulfur for use as a molluscicide," the addition of "polyoxin D zinc salt to control fungal diseases" and the reclassification of magnesium chloride "from an allowed synthetic to an allowed nonsynthetic ingredient in organic handling." USDA also published a list of proposed changes and will accept comments on the proposal until December 17, 2019. The proposed rule would "add blood meal, made with sodium citrate, to the National List as a soil fertilizer," "add natamycin to the National List to prohibit its use" and "add tamarind seed gum as a non-organic agricultural substance for use in organic handling when organic forms of tamarind seed gum are…
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has reportedly called for action from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in response to a study purportedly showing that 95% of baby foods contained at least some lead, arsenic, mercury or cadmium content. Schumer reportedly said that consumers "rightfully expect those foods to be undeniably safe, appropriately regulated and nutritiously sustaining" and called for regulators to examine the study and release a public statement on its results.
The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint against The Cornish Rum Co. against its ads marketing Dead Man's Fingers Hemp Rum. The complainant asserted that two Instagram posts and an ad in a trade magazine used language linking the hemp-infused rum to cannabis, including "Delicious mixed with coke or ginger ale—serve chilled, man. Coming to a joint near you." Another Instagram post featured an image of an outdoor ad reading "Warning: Our Hemp Rum May Cause the Munchies" along with "an image of a skull which was smoking and wearing a hat with a cannabis leaf print." The trade magazine ad included the text "Dealers Wanted." ASA dismissed the portion of the complaint arguing that the ad was intended to appeal to an audience under 18, finding that the images "were not references associated with youth culture and that overall the colours and imagery used gave each…
A Washington, D.C., Council member, with the support of seven other members, has introduced a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) that would replace a sales tax that took effect in early October 2019 with an excise tax applied to SSB manufacturers. According to a press release, the Healthy Beverage Choices Act of 2019 "repeals the existing 8% sales tax on sugary drinks (passed in 2010 and raised in 2019) and creates a new 1.5 cent per ounce excise tax on sugary drinks in the District," shifting the added cost from appearing "at the register" to appearing "on the price tag." The proposed tax would fund parks and healthy eating advocacy programs.
Healthy Babies Bright Futures has released a report describing tests it commissioned on 168 varieties of baby food from 61 brands reportedly finding that 95% of the products contained traces of arsenic, lead, cadmium or mercury, with 26% of products containing all four heavy metals. The organization asserts that rice puff snacks, teething biscuits, infant rice cereal, fruit juice, carrots and sweet potatoes carry the highest levels of heavy metals. The report cites a study arguing that “lead and arsenic in rice-based foods account for one-fifth of the more than 11 million IQ points children lose from birth to 24 months of age from all dietary sources.” The organization calls on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to “establish and finalize health-protective standards for heavy metals,” “implement a proactive testing program for heavy metals in foods consumed by babies and toddlers” and “establish a health-based limit for [inorganic arsenic] in…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has published a warning letter it sent in September 2019 to a company selling cannabidiol (CBD) oil as a dietary supplement. “This product is labeled as a dietary supplement; however, it cannot be a dietary supplement because it does not meet the definition of a dietary supplement,” the letter stated. “Under those provisions, if an article (such as CBD) is an active ingredient in a drug product that has been approved [], or has been authorized for investigation as a new drug for which substantial clinical investigations have been instituted and for which the existence of such investigations has been made public, then products containing that substance are outside the definition of a dietary supplement. There is an exception if the substance was ‘marketed as’ a dietary supplement or as a conventional food before the new drug investigations were authorized; however, based on available…
