Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) has posted to its website documents relating to the use of antimicrobial drugs in livestock feed received from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under a Freedom of Information Act request. According to PEER, internal memos show that FDA is not, as the agency has claimed, working successfully with industry to phase out this use of antimicrobials, estimated at 30 million pounds in feed troughs annually. PEER claims that “70,000 Americans die each year from drug-resistant infections” and that the “rise of drug-resistant ‘super diseases’ is driven by overuse and misuse of antimicrobial drugs in livestock feed primarily to promote livestock growth.” In litigation, FDA defended its failure to timely follow through on proceedings to withdraw from use two antimicrobials by claiming that it had abandoned formal rulemaking in favor of more effective voluntary measures. Details about a court order requiring that FDA initiate…
Category Archives U.S. Government and Regulatory Agencies
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a staff report outlining best practices for the use of facial-recognition technology in online social networks, mobile apps, digital signs, and other products and services. According to an October 22, 2012, FTC press release, facial recognition technology has “a number of potential uses, such as determining an individual’s age range and gender in order to deliver targeted advertising; assessing viewers’ emotions to see if they are engaged in a video game or a movie; or matching faces and identifying anonymous individuals in images.” But the agency has also expressed concern that these advances could contravene consumers’ expectations of privacy because they hold “the prospect of identifying anonymous individuals in public, and because the data collected may be susceptible to security breaches and hacking.” FTC is urging companies that use facial-recognition technology to (i) “design their services with consumer privacy in mind”; (ii) “develop reasonable…
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take action to address seafood fraud. In her October 15, 2012, letter, Boxer defines seafood fraud as “the mislabeling of one species of fish for another fish that is often cheaper and more readily available.” Boxer cites studies purportedly showing that the practice may be “pervasive” throughout the United States and contends that it not only constitutes “deceptive marketing, but it can also pose serious health concerns, particularly for pregnant women seeking to limit exposure to heavy metals or individuals with serious allergies to certain types of fish.” Among the studies cited are those finding mislabeled 20 percent of 88 samples tested in Boston, 55 percent of 119 samples tested in California and 31 percent of 96 samples tested in Florida. The senator expresses her concern with the low number of inspections FDA conducts on both imported…
A federal court in the District of Columbia has dismissed the declaratory judgment action that POM Wonderful filed against the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) shortly before the Commission brought an enforcement action against the pomegranate product producer. POM Wonderful LLC v. FTC, No. 10-1539 (D.D.C., decided September 30, 2012). More information about the complaint and FTC’s motion to dismiss appears in Issues 364 and 373 of this Update. According to the court, “[t]he balance of relevant factors counsels against exercising jurisdiction over this action.” Among other matters, the court found that (i) the declaratory judgment action would not fully resolve the parties’ claims because they would “still have to litigate whether POM’s health claims about its products were false, misleading, and unsubstantiated in violation of the FTC Act”; (ii) “other overlapping proceedings are pending” and POM can raise arguments in those proceedings that it has raised in the declaratory judgment…
While foreign and domestic food facilities, including farms, must renew their registrations with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) beginning October 1, 2012, under the Food Safety Modernization Act, the agency is not accepting registration renewals at this time. Facilities required to be registered under the law are asked to check FDA’s website to learn when the system becomes available,
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has revised its Green Guides to “help marketers avoid making misleading environmental claims.” According to FTC, the revisions reflect “hundreds of consumer and industry comments” and include changes to existing Guides “as well as new sections on the use of carbon offsets, ‘green’ certifications and seals, and renewable energy and renewable materials claims.” In particular, the updated guidance advises against “broad, unqualified claims that a product is ‘environmentally friendly’ or ‘eco-friendly’” because such claims are “nearly impossible to substantiate.” FTC has also warned marketers about the use of unqualified degradable claims for solid waste products and items destined for landfills, incinerators or recycling facilities, and clarified its guidelines for compostable, ozone, recyclable, recycled content, and source reduction claims. In addition, the Green Guides now offer new sections covering issues not anticipated in previous editions, such as (i) certifications and seals of approval, (ii) carbon offsets,…
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) conducted a day-long workshop, October 2, 2012, “to examine competition and consumer protection issues in the pet medications industry.” Currently pending before the House Subcommittee on Health, a bill (H.R. 1406) introduced in April 2011 by Representative Jim Matheson (D-Utah) would require FTC to issue rules mandating pet medication prescription portability, which could fundamentally change the way such products are sold in the United States. FTC seeks stakeholder input on issues that would affect a $7 billion per year industry and has extended the public comment period to November 1. An early step in FTC’s investigation, the workshop provided a forum for widely divergent views as veterinary professional advocates and representatives of the animal health industry addressed current practices limiting the distribution of pet medications and the potential impact of a change that would allow consumers to purchase the drugs from a full range…
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) seeking to end payments made to the National Pork Producers Council (Pork Council) for the purchase of the registered mark “Pork, The Other White Meat.” HSUS v. Vilsack, No. 12-01582 (D.D.C., filed September 24, 2012). According to the complaint, which details the circumstances leading to the mark’s creation, development and use, the Pork Council should not have retained ownership of the mark, and the $60-million, 20-year contract for its purchase should have been terminated when USDA decided to retire the mark and create a new one. HSUS contends that the contract is funded with pork-producer checkoff program dollars, which cannot be used for lobbying. Because the Pork Council is a lobbying organization, HSUS claims that the ongoing payments under the purchase agreement violate federal law. HSUS seeks a declaration that these expenditures of checkoff…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program (NOP) has issued an interim rule extending the use of nutrient vitamins and minerals in organic handling while the agency considers a proposal to renew their exemption (use) on the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (National List) for another five years. According to a September 27, 2012, Federal Register notice, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) previously published a proposed rule during its 2012 sunset review that recommended continuing the use of nutrient vitamins and minerals “as ingredients in or on processed products labeled as ‘organic’ or ‘made with organic (specified ingredients or food group(s))’” after their National List exemption expired on October 21, 2012. The proposed rule also sought to correct “an inaccurate cross-reference to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations in the listing for vitamins and minerals on the National List.” The interim rule will allow handlers and…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has extended the comment period for an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) that announced potential changes to regulations governing new antimicrobial animal drug reporting. The ANPR proposed altering these regulations to incorporate the requirements of section 105 of the Animal Drug User Fee Amendments of 2008 (ADUFA 105). FDA has requested public comments “on how best to compile and present the summary information as directed by ADUFA 105, and on alternative methods available to the Agency for obtaining additional data and information about the extent of antimicrobial drug use in food-producing animals.” FDA has extended the comment period at the request of responders until November 26, 2012. See Federal Register, September 26, 2012.
