The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program has announced a public meeting of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) on October 28-30, 2014, in Louisville, Kentucky. The meeting will include recommendations from the board’s six subcommittees on a wide range of topics, including “substances petitioned to the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (National List), substances on the National List that require NOSB review before their 2015 and 2016 sunset dates, updates from working groups on technical issues, and amendments to guidance on organic policies.” In particular, the Handling Subcommittee intends “to take up the issue of whether to prohibit BPA [bisphenol A] in packaging material used for organic foods in light of mounting evidence that it may be harmful.” To this end, NOSB plans to prioritize research dedicated to finding “suitable alternatives for the linings of cans used for various organic products such as tomatoes, beans and…
Category Archives Legislation, Regulations and Standards
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration have scheduled an October 28, 2014, public meeting in Washington, D.C., to solicit comments about draft positions to be considered at the 36th Session of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission in Bali, Indonesia, on November 24-28. Issues on the October 28 meeting agenda include a (i) discussion paper on biofortification, (ii) proposed draft revision of the Codex General Principles for the Addition of Essential Nutrients to Foods, (iii) proposed draft revision of the list of food additives, and (iv) a proposal to review the Codex Standard for Follow-Up Formula. See Federal Register, September 10, 2014. Issue 537
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published preliminary materials for the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) toxicological review of diisononyl phthalate (DINP), a plasticizer used in food-contact materials.Slated for discussion at the IRIS Bimonthly Public Science Meeting to be held October 29-30, 2014, in Arlington, Virginia, the preliminary materials include (i) “a planning and scoping summary,” (ii) “information on the approaches used to identify pertinent literature,” (iii) “results of the literature search,” (iv) “approaches for selection of studies for hazard identification,” (v) “presentation of critical studies in evidence tables and exposure-response arrays,” and (vi) “mechanistic information for DINP.” In addition to feedback on these general topics, EPA has specifically requested public comment and discussion on “DINP-induced liver effects, including spongiosis hepatis”; “the evidence for DINP-induced male reproductive toxicity; “the relevance of the xenograft and ex-vivo tissue studies”; the human relevance of animal studies associating mononuclear cell leukemia with DINP…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published a September 2014 Vital Signs report claiming that nine in 10 U.S. children “eat more sodium than recommended.” Noting that children ages 6-18 years consume an average of 3,300 mg sodium per day, CDC estimates that 43 percent of children’s daily sodium intake “comes from just 10 common food types: pizza; bread and rolls; cold cuts and cured meats; sandwiches like cheeseburgers; snacks, such as chips; cheese; chicken patties, nuggets, and tenders; pasta mixed dishes, such as spaghetti with sauce; Mexican mixed dishes, such as burritos and tacos; and soup.” The agency is urging the federal government to apply new nutrition standards that aim to halve the sodium content of some foods served in schools by 2022. It also asks food manufacturers to replace sodium “with alternatives like spices, herbs, and vegetables,” and to gradually reduce the sodium content of…
A group of U.S. senators and a group of U.S. representatives, all Democrats, each sent an identical letter to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Edith Ramirez calling for a report on 2014 food and beverage marketing expenditures aimed at children. They found it “unacceptable” that FTC “is not actively working on projects focused on food marketing to children,” pointing out that data gathered during 2014 and compiled into a report could serve as a five-year follow-up to a similar 2012 report on 2009 data. “A follow up report would help policy makers, public health practitioners, industry representatives, and the public understand how food marketing directed at children and adolescents has changed over the last five years and provide a critical opportunity to evaluate the continued role of such marketing in regards to the health of our nation’s children.” The senators who signed the letter were Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Richard Durbin…
Recent legislation (S.B. 2718) introduced by U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) has called for energy drink guidelines as part of a wider initiative to ensure children’s safety in athletics. According to a September 8, 2014, press release, the Supporting Athletes, Families and Educators to Protect the Lives of Athletic Youth Act (SAFE PLAY Act) combines previous legislative efforts to address “concussions, cardiac arrests, heat-related illness, and consumption of energy drinks.” The bill would require the Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to (i) “develop information about the ingredients used in energy drinks and the potential side effects of energy drink consumption,” and (ii) “recommend guidelines for the safe use of energy drink consumption by youth, including youth participating in athletic activities.” Although the proposed guidelines would cover all liquid dietary supplements and…
In an appeal from a National Advertising Division investigation initiated by Hill’s Pet Nutrition, a National Advertising Review Board (NARB) panel has recommended that Blue Buffalo Co. cease implying that other pet food manufacturers are “fooling” their customers on pet food nutrition. They found that the message of “fooling” was expressly or impliedly in several of Blue Buffalo’s advertisements without support. In addition, the NARB panel recommended that Blue Buffalo change its “True BLUE Test” chart on its website because it “reasonably conveyed the inaccurate message that the absence of checkmarks for a manufacturer meant that all of that manufacturer’s pet food products had specified ‘undesirable’ ingredients and none of that manufacturer’s pet food products has specified ‘desirable’ products.” The chart includes lines indicating that a brand’s products either always or never contain particular ingredients, and NARB found that the phrasing, though accurate, could imply inaccurate information to consumers. For…
The National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus’ Advertising Self-Regulatory Council (ASRC) has recommended that Chobani, Inc. cease airing what it called “Farmland” commercials, “the centerpiece of the company’s campaign to promote its ‘Simply 100’ Greek yogurt.” A rival yogurt company challenged a number of Chobani TV ads that “featured two ‘farm’ settings—a synthetic farm where ‘other 100-calorie yogurts’ were made from the contents of test tubes and plastic cows were filled with powdered chemicals and a real farm with boxes of fresh fruit and live cows.” While the ads did not name other yogurt makers or products, the challenger contended that the message conveyed was that its products do not contain real fruit; they are made with fake milk or milk with chemical additives; its Greek yogurt is “entirely artificial, and unwholesome, unhealthful, and/or harmful to consumers”; and Chobani’s product is the best-tasting 100-calorie Greek…
New York City Council Member Benjamin Kallos (D-Upper East Side) has introduced legislation (442-2014) that would allow toy giveaways, digital rewards and other incentives only in children’s meals that meet strict nutritional requirements. If adopted, the Healthy Happy Meals Act would define “incentive item” as (i) “any toy, game, trading card, admission ticket or other consumer product, whether physical or digital, with particular appeal to children, which is provided directly by the restaurant,” or (ii) “any coupon, voucher, ticket, token, code or password which is provided directly by the restaurant and is redeemable for or grants digital or other access to any toy, game, trading card, admission ticket, or other consumer product with particular appeal to children.” The proposed rules would require children’s meals that offer such items to contain one serving of fruit, vegetable or whole grains and less than 500 calories and 600 milligrams of sodium. In addition,…
Health Canada has announced the implementation of new rules requiring mechanically tenderized beef (MTB) products to be labeled as such. Effective August 21, 2014, the mandatory labeling requirements—which previously applied only to federally registered producers of MTB cuts—now cover “all industry sectors selling uncooked MTB to other industry members or consumers,” including retailers, butcher shops, meat processors, and importers. Under the new rules, the labels must also include instructions for safe cooking that “emphasize the importance of cooking MTB to a minimum internal temperature of 63°C (145°F) and turning over mechanically tenderized steaks at least twice during cooking to kill harmful bacteria.” “Without clear labels, it is difficult for consumers to know which beef products have been mechanically tenderized,” said Minister of Health Rona Ambrose in an August 21, 2014, press release. “Today’s announcement, along with new industry labelling guidelines we have released, will help Canadians know when they are…
