The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed an administrative complaint arguing that a proposed merger of US Foods and Sysco would violate antitrust laws, resulting in higher prices and diminished service for the companies’ customers. In re Sysco Corp., No. 9364 (FTC, filed February 19, 2015). The complaint asserts that a merger of Sysco and US Foods, the largest broadline foodservice distributors in the United States, would account for 75 percent of the national market for broadline distribution services. The sale of 11 US Foods distribution centers to another distributor would not counteract the significant competitive harm caused by the merger, FTC argues. “This proposed merger would eliminate significant competition in the marketplace and create a dominant national broadline foodservice distributor,” Debbie Feinstein, the director of FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in February 19, 2015, press release. “Consumers across the country, and the businesses that serve them, benefit from the…
Category Archives U.S. Government and Regulatory Agencies
The 14-member committee charged with developing the federal government’s "2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans” has issued its report containing recommendations for promoting consumption of foods and beverages that assist in maintaining a healthy weight and preventing disease. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Agriculture (USDA) are soliciting written comments about the committee’s report as well as offering the opportunity to provide oral comments at a March 24, 2015, public meeting in Bethesda, Maryland. Recommendations include following a diet low in saturated fat, added sugars and sodium, i.e., “less than 2,300 mg dietary sodium per day (or age-appropriate Dietary Reference Intake amount), less than 10 percent of total calories from saturated fat per day, and a maximum of 10 percent of total calories from added sugars per day.” The committee discourages consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. Issue 556
U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) have reintroduced a proposed bill that would require the Food and Drug Administration to initiate labeling rules for foods that contain genetically engineered (GE) ingredients. “Some in the food and chemical industry say adding this very small piece of information to food labels will confuse people, will alarm people,” Boxer said. “Well, that argument is a familiar one. It’s been raised by almost every single industry when they want to avoid giving consumers basic facts about the product they’re buying.” The Genetically Engineered Food Right-to-Know Act reportedly has wide-ranging support from more than 120 public health, consumer and environmental organizations. The congressional lawmakers introduced similar legislation in the 113th Congress. See The Hill and Press Release of Congressman Peter DeFazio, February 12, 2015. Issue 555
Finding a lack of standing, a D.C. federal court has dismissed Food & Water Watch’s lawsuit alleging that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) New Poultry Inspection System (NPIS) is inconsistent with the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA), which requires USDA to ensure that poultry products are wholesome, unadulterated and properly marked, labeled and packaged. Food & Water Watch v. Vilsack, No. 14-1547 (D.D.C., order entered February 9, 2015). The NPIS reduces the number of USDA inspectors at the slaughter line of poultry production facilities, “freeing up [USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service] resources to conduct offline inspection activities that are more important for food safety, such as verifying compliance with sanitation and [other] requirements, or conducting Food Safety Assessments.” Food & Water Watch challenged the NPIS as consumers of poultry, arguing that the USDA inspection label indicated to them that a federal employee had inspected the poultry and that…
Challengers to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s country-of-origin labeling (COOL) rules requiring meat products to indicate where the animals were born, raised and slaughtered reportedly will not continue to pursue their claims, according to a stipulation of dismissal. Am. Meat Inst. v. USDA, No. 13-1033 (D.C., stipulation filed February 9, 2015). The meat and poultry groups lost their First Amendment challenge to the mandatory labeling rules in the D.C. Circuit Court and were later denied a rehearing. The stipulation comes after a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling against the United States in favor of Canada and Mexico, which argue that the rules discriminated against their livestock producers. “While we remain disappointed with the court’s ruling on country of origin labeling (COOL), we agree with the World Trade Organization’s assessment that the U.S. rule is out of compliance with its trade obligations to Canada and Mexico,” North American Meat Institute CEO…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued the results of a study finding that dark chocolate products may contain milk that is not declared on other labels. According to a February 11, 2015, consumer update, the agency tested dark chocolate bars for the presence of milk after dividing them into categories based on their labeling: (i) those that included precautionary statements such as “may contain milk” or “may contain traces of milk”; (ii) those labeled “dairy-free” or “allergen-free”; (iii) those that made no mention of milk on the label; and (iv) those with inconsistent labels—for example, a “vegan” product with a label indicating the possible presence of milk traces. The results evidently identified milk in (i) two of the 17 dark chocolates labeled “dairy-free” or “allergen-free”; (ii) 55 of the 93 products that gave no clear indication of the presence of milk in the products; and (iii) all…
A California federal court has granted plaintiffs’ motion to vacate the judgment and reopened a proposed class action against Attune Foods Inc., finding that the delay in guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on whether “sugar” is the “common or usual name” for “evaporated cane juice” (ECJ), an ingredient that appears on Attune’s labels, could unfairly disadvantage the plaintiffs’ case. Swearingen v. Attune Foods Inc., No. 13-4541 (U.S. Dist. Ct., N.D. Cal., Oakland Div., order entered January 28, 2015). Citing the primary jurisdiction doctrine, the court had dismissed the case without prejudice in May 2014 to await FDA guidance after the agency reopened the comment period in March of that year to determine whether sugar and ECJ are materially different substances. After the plaintiffs sought relief from the judgment, the court has now determined that FDA’s delay could unfairly disadvantage the plaintiffs if the statute of limitations prohibits…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has extended the deadline for public comments about whether to expand the products included in its guidance titled “Toxicological Principles for the Safety Assessment of Food Ingredients”—also known as the “Redbook.” The agency is apparently considering this expansion “to include chemical safety assessments for all products over which FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) has statutory authority including regulatory contexts such as food additives, food contact substances, dietary supplement ingredients, food contaminants, and cosmetics.” According to FDA, “The Redbook would describe toxicological principles which apply across regulatory categories while still providing specific guidance for applying these principles within each particular context. The safety of foods containing microbial contaminants will continue to remain outside of the scope of the Redbook.” Comments may now be submitted until May 11, 2015. See Federal Register, February 2, 2015.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has extended until February 27, 2015, the deadline for submitting materials related to (i) nominations for a non-voting industry representative to serve on the Food Advisory Committee and (ii) statements from organizations interested in participating in the selection process for the non-voting committee member. The Food Advisory Committee evaluates data and makes recommendations on such matters as food ingredient safety, food and cosmetic labeling, nutritional issues, and exposure limits for food contaminants. See Federal Register, February 2, 2015. Issue 554
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) order that found POM Wonderful’s advertising to be misleading for claiming that its products treat or reduce the risk of several medical conditions, including prostate cancer and heart disease. POM Wonderful, LLC v. FTC, No. 13-1060 (D.C. Cir., order entered January 30, 2015). In 2013, FTC ordered POM to stop making misleading health claims about its product, and POM challenged the ruling. POM argued that its ads were protected by the First Amendment, but the court dismissed this argument, finding that deceptive and misleading ads have no First Amendment protection. The juice company also asserted that it had clinical studies to support its health claims. The circuit court affirmed FTC’s finding that POM had cherry-picked its results when presenting them to the public, which invalidated them as support for the claims. The court agreed with POM, however, that…
