Nonprofit consumer advocacy organization Food & Water Watch, Inc. and two of its members have filed an action against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its Food Safety and Inspection Service seeking to enjoin their new National Poultry Inspection System (NPIS) rules. Food & Water Watch, Inc. v. Vilsack, No. 14-1547 (D.D.C., filed September 11, 2014). Details about the rules, which take effect October 20, 2014, appear in Issue 532 of this Update. The plaintiffs allege that the rules violate the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA) and Administrative Procedure Act (APA). They interpret the PPIA as requiring “that federal inspectors critically appraise all chicken and turkey carcasses and viscera,” and set forth how increased line speeds and rules giving poultry employees, without training or certification, the authority to inspect and remove adulterated birds or parts from processing lines before inspectors see them violate this requirement. Without actual inspection of every bird,…
Category Archives U.S. Government and Regulatory Agencies
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other groups have requested that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reconsider its decision that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is not required to begin proceedings to withdraw approval of certain antibiotics in livestock feed. NRDC Inc. v. FDA, No. 12-2106 (2d Cir., petition filed September 8, 2014). Additional details about the Second Circuit’s split ruling appear in Issue 531 of this Update. According to a news source, the petitioners contend that the panel majority overlooked FDA’s initial findings that the use of antibiotics in animal feed is unsafe and “writes the withdrawal provision out of the Food and Drug Act.” FDA considered the safety of penicillin and tetracyclines in animal feed in 1977, but never conducted adversarial hearings with industry as purportedly required under the law, opting instead to seek the voluntary withdrawal of animal feed with antibiotics from the market. See Law360,…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reportedly taking measures to bolster intra-agency program processes based on a comprehensive review of the scientific capacity and management of the Chemical Safety Program across the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) and Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM). FDA plans to address improvements in the principal categories of science, communication and collaboration, and training and expertise. Among other things, the agency intends to (i) update the agency’s Toxicological Principles for the Safety Assessment of Food Ingredients (Redbook); (ii) establish consistent methodologies for safety and risk assessments within and across CFSAN offices and between CFSAN and CVM; (iii) increase collaboration on emerging issues with other federal agencies; and (iv) create an experts database to help identify potential collaborators both inside and outside the agency. See FDA Constituent Update, August 28, 2014. Issue 537
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…
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
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…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) seeks public comments on its environmental assessment of the proposed field release of a genetically engineered (GE) diamondback moth. A plant pest that feeds on cruciferous crops, such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, cauliflower, collard, kale, kohlrabi, mustard, radish, turnip, and watercress, the diamondback, also known as the cabbage moth, is said to be highly fecund, capable of migrating long distances when carried by the wind and short lived. Some researchers attribute the increasing significance of the moth as a plant pest to insecticide resistance. The GE variety has been developed for “repressible female lethality and to express red fluorescence as a marker.” According to APHIS, “The purpose of the field release is to assess the feasibility and efficacy of these moths in reducing populations of non-genetically engineered diamondback moths.” Cornell University requested the permitted field…
