An organization that promotes family-scale farming and organic foods has called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Dean Foods, which purportedly claims that its Horizon “milk with Omega-3 DHA” products support brain and eye development in children and benefit pregnant and nursing women. In its April 21, 2011, letter, the Cornucopia Institute details the company’s allegedly false and misleading claims “targeted to pregnant women and children” and urges the agency to enjoin the company, if appropriate, to prevent further false and misleading marketing claims. According to the institute, the company is also promoting its Horizon milk as “natural nourishment . . . without the additives you’d rather avoid,” despite using a DHA oil that is “an extract from mutated and fermented algae that have never been part of the human diet.” The letter notes that in 2004 FTC questioned whether the company that makes the DHA supplements added…
Category Archives U.S. Government and Regulatory Agencies
According to the Department of Justice, a Massachusetts-based fish packer has been convicted of several criminal charges for falsely labeling packages of frozen fish fillets. A federal jury in Boston found Stephen Delaney guilty of a felony violation of the Lacey Act for falsely labeling $8,000 worth of frozen pollock, a product of China, as more expensive cod loins, a product of Canada. The jury also convicted Delaney of one misdemeanor violation for misbranding food under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act; he allegedly placed into interstate commerce $203,000 worth of Chinese frozen fish fillets falsely labeled as products of Canada, Holland, Namibia, and the United States. Evidence at trial apparently indicated that he also changed 4 oz. labels on some packages to 5 oz. labels. Delaney will be sentenced on June 8, 2011; he faces up to six years in jail and up to $350,000 in fines. See Department of…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has answered criticism of a July 21, 2000, final rule allowing “the safe use of ionizing radiation for the reduction of Salmonella in fresh shell eggs,” and denied requests for a hearing on the ground that the objections “do not raise issues of material fact or otherwise provide a basis for revoking or modifying . . . the regulation.” FDA evidently received 26 submissions contesting the final rule, which permits the irradiation of fresh shell eggs at doses not to exceed 3.0 kiloGray (kGy), but only one letter from Public Citizen raised specific issues within the rule’s scope. The April 13, 2011, Federal Register notice responds to Public Citizen’s claims that FDA misrepresented irradiation’s efficacy and its effect on vitamin A loss and egg yolk carotenoids; that FDA raised the dose allowance to 3.0 kGY without properly updating its analyses; and that FDA failed…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced an April 20, 2011, public meeting to discuss a Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) mandate to implement “comprehensive, science-based preventive controls across the food supply.” FSMA requires human, pet and animal food and feed facilities registered under section 415 of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 350d) “to take certain preventive actions, including to evaluate the hazards that could affect food manufactured, processed, packed, or held by the facility, and to identify and implement preventive controls to significantly minimize or prevent the occurrence of such hazards.” The meeting will help FDA establish these controls as well as industry guidance “for conducting a hazard analysis, documenting hazards, implementing preventive controls, and documenting their implementation.” In particular, the agency has requested information on “preventive controls used by facilities to identify and address hazards associated with specific types of food and specific processes.”…
In preparation for the 34th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Office of the Under Secretary of Food Safety has scheduled a June 16, 2011, meeting to provide information and receive public comments on draft U.S. positions that will be discussed at the Codex meeting. Written comments may be submitted to U.S. Codex Manager Karen Stuck at [email protected]. The Codex session will be held July 4-9 in Geneva, and topics on the agenda include the consideration of draft standards at varying stages of development. Among other matters, Codex participants will consider standards and guidelines relating to risk analysis of foodborne antimicrobial resistance, nutrition labeling, the control of Campylobacter and Salmonella in chicken meat, food additives, maximum levels for melamine in food and for arsenic in rice, fish oils, and hygienic practice for mineral waters, fresh fruits and vegetables. The World Health Organization and the…
Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) have introduced a bill that would “establish a regulatory framework . . . under the aegis of the Federal Trade Commission [FTC]” to protect personal data online. According to an April 12, 2011, press release, the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights aims to protect consumers from “unscrupulous actors in the market” by creating “a baseline code of conduct for how personally identifiable information and information that can uniquely identify an individual or networked device are used, stored, and distributed.” To this end, the legislation would require collectors of information, such as online advertisers and vendors, to (i) “implement security measures to protect the information they collect and maintain”; (ii) “provide clear notice to individuals on the collection practices and the purpose for such collection”; and (iii) “collect only as much information as necessary to process or enforce a transaction or deliver a…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has proposed a procedural change that would allow inspectors to keep meat and poultry products from commerce “until FSIS test results for harmful substances are received.” FSIS currently recommends that processors and official import establishments hold sampled products pending test results, but has evidently concluded that his voluntary measure has allowed adulterated shipments to enter the market. “Therefore, FSIS is announcing its tentative determination not to apply the mark of inspection until negative results are available and received for any testing for adulterants,” stated the agency, which will accept comments on the proposal for 90 days after publication in the Federal Register. FSIS has argued that a mandatory “test and hold” requirement will “substantially reduce serious recalls for meat and poultry.” Along with the agency’s new and revised performance standards to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter incidence in young chickens and…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) have announced that they are seeking comments and scientific data to update a risk assessment on the relationship between foodborne Listeria in selected ready-to-eat (RTE) foods and human health. According to the agencies, the effort is designed to evaluate reduction or prevention strategies of Listeria exposure to RTE foods, such as “the impact of changing refrigerated time and temperature storage prior to consumption.” The agencies specifically request comments or data on areas including (i) Listeria “contamination in different RTE foods sampled at retail or in the processing plant,” (ii) Listeria “survival and growth dynamics in RTE foods,” (iii) “the relationship between the dose of Listeria monocytogenes ingested with food and the frequency of Listeria,” (iv) “current food consumption practices in the United States” relating to RTE foods, and (v) storage times and temperatures that may affect Listeria growth during…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched a new “consumer-friendly” web portal detailing the latest recalls, market withdrawals and safety alerts for food and other products regulated by FDA. According to an April 4, 2011, press release, the new searchable database organizes all recall information since 2009 “by date, product brand name, product description, reason for the recall, and the recalling firm.” It also provides a link to news releases about each recall, as well as a photograph of the products in question. Designed with input from stakeholder groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Food Marketing Institute, Grocery Manufacturers Association, and Pew Health Group, the web portal answers to Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) requirements that FDA implement “a consumer-friendly recall search engine within 90 days after the law went into effect.” Under FSMA, the agency must also indicate whether it offered the opportunity…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued its proposed menu-labeling rule for chain restaurants and calorie-labeling rule for food in vending machines. According to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, “These proposals will ensure that consumers have more information when they make their own food choices. Giving consumers clear nutritional information makes it easier for them to choose healthier options that can help fight obesity and make us all healthier.” Comments on the proposals, which were mandated under the Affordable Care Act, must be submitted by June 6, 2011, for the menu-labeling rule and by July 5 for the vending machine rule. Excluded from the menu-labeling rule are “[m]ovie theaters, airplanes, bowling alleys, and other establishments whose primary purpose is not to sell food,” and FDA is requesting comments “on whether additional types of food establishments should or should not be covered by the new rule.”…
