California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has announced that a public hearing on “naturally occurring” lead levels in chili or tamarind candy has been rescheduled for July 6, 2017. Comments on the petition may be submitted by email or in writing by July 20, 2017. Issue 637
Category Archives Legislation, Regulations and Standards
The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint arguing an advertisement for Arla Foods’ organic milk was misleading because it included the statements “Good for the land” and “helping support a more sustainable future.” ASA reviewed evidence the company provided about its organic farming methods but concluded that the dairy had failed to substantiate its claim that organic milk production has an “overall positive impact on the environment, taking into account its full life cycle.” Accordingly, the agency ruled that the ad was misleading and told Arla not to make environmental claims about their products unless they could be substantiated. Issue 637
Responding to a challenge from Ragù® maker Mizkan Americas Inc., the National Advertising Division (NAD) has recommended that Campbell Soup Co. change broadcast ads featuring toddlers as “life-long pasta experts,” finding the ads are “puffery” and do not contain “a claim about the preferences of toddlers.” The ads showed a split-screen with one child eating and one child refusing the food. Campbell Soup said the claim was substantiated by a “statistically significant” taste test conducted with subjects aged six or older comparing Prego® and Ragù® sauces, but NAD said the ads did not contain a provable claim that young children prefer one sauce over another. Issue 637
The Seattle City Council has approved a tax on distributors of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) proposed by the city’s mayor. SSBs covered by the tax include sports, fruit, energy and soft drinks as well as flavored syrups commonly used in coffee drinks. Baby formula, medications, weight-loss drinks, fruit juice and diet soft drinks are exempt from the tax. See Seattle Times, June 5, 2017. Issue 637
Five public advocacy groups have filed suit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking to vacate FDA’s “Substances Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS) rule, which allegedly allows “potentially unsafe food additives to be used in the food supply (human and animal) without FDA review, approval, oversight, or knowledge, in violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA).” Ctr. for Food Safety v. Price, No. 173833 (S.D.N.Y., filed May 22, 2017). The plaintiffs argue that the GRAS rule allows manufacturers to certify that a substance is GRAS without notice to FDA or the public, although the rule gives them the option to notify the agency about certification. However, they allege, the Food Additives Amendment to the FDCA requires food additives to go through an FDA approval process. FDA allowed manufacturers to begin using the proposed rule’s optional notification…
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has announced new recommendations limiting the amount of fruit juice that children consume to reduce the risk of obesity and dental caries. Whole fruit is preferable to fruit juice for nutrition and healthy weight gain, the group stated, because 100 percent juice is mostly water, with small amounts of vitamins and minerals and no fiber. The recommendations further specify that infants should not have fruit juice at all during their first year, and toddlers should be limited to 4 ounces a day. AAP also recommends that juices be pasteurized to reduce the risk of E. coli, Salmonella and Cryptosporidium. Issue 636
The holding company of Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA has reportedly agreed to pay a $3.2-billion fine for the company’s involvement in a graft and bribery scandal involving more than 1,800 politicians, including President Michel Temer and former President Dilma Rousseff. J&F Investimentos, co-owned by brothers Joesley and Wesley Batista, will pay the fine to U.S. and Brazilian authorities over a period of 25 years. Joesley Batista stepped down as chairman and member of the JBS SA board of directors; Wesley Batista has resigned from the board but remains chief executive of the company. The Batistas purportedly told Brazilian federal prosecutors they had paid about $186 million in bribes to politicians, and JBS SA had already agreed to pay $183.8 million to settle its criminal liability for the bribes. See NPR, May 31, 2017. Issue 636
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has issued a May 28, 2013, ruling that will allow alcoholic beverage manufacturers “to provide consumers with nutritional information about their products.” Acting under the authority of the Federal Alcohol Administration Act, TTB will permit the use of “Serving Facts” statements on wine, distilled spirits and malt beverages that describe the product’s “serving size, the number of servings per container, the number of calories, and the number of grams of carbohydrates, protein, and fat per serving.” Manufacturers may also choose to include information “about the alcohol content of the product as a percentage of alcohol by volume and may also include a statement of the fluid ounces of pure ethyl alcohol per serving.” According to the new ruling, TTB issued the voluntary guidance pending plans to require similar Serving Facts statements on all alcoholic beverage labels.…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) will host public meetings to hear comments on proposed revisions to regulations governing importation, interstate movement and environmental release of certain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Public meetings will be held in Kansas City, Missouri; Davis, California; Riverdale, Maryland; and via webcast in June 2017. Written comments may also be submitted. Issue 635
A Washington Post report tracking multiple shipments of corn and soybeans imported from Turkey has purportedly found that the food was sold in the U.S. market fraudulently labeled as organic. The article argues that U.S. Department of Agriculture organic standards create loopholes that allow fraud to slip through. Organic corn and soybeans grown outside of the United States are required to be inspected, the Post asserts, but they are not required to be tested for pesticide residue, and inspectors that do test have apparently found high levels of pesticide use on the supposedly organic foods. The Post tracked three shipments: the first was rejected by the importing company for failing to have proper documentation, the second was fraudulently relabeled as organic soybeans before being accepted by its importing company, which has since stopped selling "all potentially affected product," and the third was rejected by importers but continued to be marketed…
