The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) will allow distillers to use a variety of casks—including those previously used to age tequila and fruit spirits—to age Scotch whisky during its required three-year maturation, according to the Wall Street Journal. Regulations previously limited acceptable casks to those previously used to hold sherry, cognac, bourbon or port. Some distillers told the news outlet that the change would allow companies to create "new flavor experiences" for Scotch whisky drinkers, while others expressed apprehension. "Scotch needs to be judged by its color, taste and traditionality," a former chief executive of the SWA told WSJ. "Clearly if you then had a whisky that tasted of tequila—if it used an ex-tequila cask—it would not be a Scotch whisky."
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Seeking to obtain information on the ingredients in LaCroix, Consumer Reports apparently discovered that National Beverage Corp. had failed to obtain a permit sell its products in Massachusetts, which requires the submittal of water-quality tests. Consumer Reports notes, "The situation reveals an unusual quirk of food safety regulations: Federal and state regulations typically treat artificially carbonated waters—including club soda, tonic water, seltzer, and sparkling water—differently than bottled water. (Sparkling mineral water, which is naturally carbonated and contains natural minerals, is regulated like bottled water.) And even in states that have added oversight of those fizzy waters, there's apparently occasional slip-ups in enforcement." The article, originally published June 18, 2019, was updated on June 26 to reflect that National Beverage Corp. announced it had obtained the permit required to sell LaCroix within Massachusetts.
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) has issued a response to a series by The Guardian purporting to examine the role of chemicals in Americans' lives. "Sadly, in those stories, they decided to peddle misinformation and promote well-worn accusations from anti-industry activists that can create unnecessary fear and confusion about the products we use in our daily lives," ACC argues. "It’s important to know that the mere presence of a substance does not imply that a chemical will lead to adverse effects. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) emphasizes, 'The measurement of an environmental chemical in a person’s blood or urine does not by itself mean that the chemical causes disease.'" The article also responds to a number of specific claims made in the "Toxic America" series, including that "We should try to limit our exposure to essentially all chemicals," which is attributed to Philippe Grandjean. ACC notes,…
The Guardian has released "Toxic America," a "major series to investigate the risks of contamination in our food, water, and cosmetics." Articles in the series include: A comparison between the "stringent health and environment review" that the European Union will apply to foods edited using CRISPR-Cas9 and the perceived lack of regulation for similar foods in the United States; An examination of nanoparticles, "which are largely unregulated in the US," and their use in foods; A discussion of additives "with industrial applications" banned in Europe but approved for use in the United States, such as materials that appear in "yoga mats, pesticides, hair straighteners, explosives and petroleum products"; and An interactive tool allowing readers to identify their grocery choices and purporting to inform them about "what additives, pesticides and antibiotics" are in their selections.
A New York Times article has documented how Philadelphia's tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) has affected the residents of the city. The article, published days before the city's Democratic primary for mayor, speculates that the tax could be eliminated if the primary challengers were to beat Mayor Jim Kenney; although the mayor won the May 21, 2019, primary, the article compiles multiple negative perspectives of the tax and its effects. "In my district, 95 percent of the residents hate it," one councilperson is quoted as saying. "The people who buy $7 lattes say the poor should be drinking water, but no one is considering the fact that my constituents live in food deserts with no access to fresh fruit and vegetables." A Philadelphia business owner told the Times that his company has lost customers because the tax has sent consumers to suburban grocery stores to purchase SSBs along with the…
In an effort to combat citrus greening, some citrus farmers have reportedly begun spraying antibiotics on their trees, sparking concerns about antibiotic resistance, according to the New York Times. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) apparently approved the use of streptomycin and oxytetracycline for emergencies "despite strenuous objections from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention" and the existence of bans on similar uses in Europe and Brazil. The Times calls the growers' current use and the levels that EPA has approved for the future "the largest use of medically important antibiotics in cash crops" and contrasts the decision to the ban on antibiotics used to promote growth in farm animals. One plant pathologist reportedly told the Times that EPA prohibits the application of antibiotics 40 days before harvest, resulting in "little chance consumers would ingest the drugs."
National Public Radio (NPR) has published a piece on BlueNalu, a company aiming to market and sell fish cultivated in a laboratory. "[U]nlike today's wild-caught or farmed fish options, BlueNalu's version of seafood will have no head, no tail, no bones, no blood. It's finfish, just without the swimming and breathing part," the article explains. "It's seafood without the sea." BlueNalu is one of six companies working on lab-grown seafood, NPR reports, and all are "likely five to 10 years away from having actual product on the market." A BlueNalu executive told NPR that he is confident the products will not "end up languishing within the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] for years, the way AquaBounty's genetically modified salmon did," partly because lab-grown fish is "not using any genetic modification" such as CRISPR. "We aren't introducing new molecules into the diet. We're not introducing a new entity that doesn't exist…
Quartz has reported on a Michigan State University study purportedly finding that tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), which can help preserve unsaturated vegetable oils and animal fats, may cause a higher susceptibility to influenza. Researchers apparently found that TBHQ caused the T cells of lab mice to become more sluggish and thus unable to fight off the flu virus as effectively. "The researchers’ leading hypothesis is that TBHQ causes these effects by triggering some of the proteins in the body that are known to suppress the immune system," Quartz reports. "The emerging scientific work so far only applies to laboratory mice, which is to say it still has a long way to go before we’ll know whether humans are impacted in a similar way. Still, if the science bears out, it could wind up impacting how food companies operate, and it could give health experts new insight into how people are made more…
The meat industry is moving towards self-regulation for identifying diseased animals, an article in The Washington Post asserts. The article documents a series of changes shifting responsibility for identifying contamination in meat production, especially pork and poultry, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to employees of the regulated production plants. The Post spoke to a former hog inspector who worked under the trial program for testing the proposed system. “I saw the alleged inspections that were performed by plant workers; they weren’t inspections. They were supposed to meet or exceed USDA standards — I never saw that happen,” the Post quotes him as saying. USDA also states that plants participating in the trial program had fewer worker injuries, but Texas State University researchers reportedly found it “impossible” for the agency “to draw any statistically valid conclusion about worker injury rate differences” based on data the researchers obtained through a…
The New York Times has published an update on proposed state laws defining "meat" as an animal-derived product. In addition to Missouri's existing law, several state legislatures—including Arizona, Arkansas, Nebraska and Washington—will be considering statutes that would prevent purveyors of plant-based or lab-grown meat-replacement products from using the term "meat" on their labels. The policy director of the Good Food Institute, which is alleging that Missouri's definition violates the First Amendment, reportedly told the Times that she believes the issue will be moot after the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides guidance.
