According to this article, companies trying to find ways to can their food products in metal containers without bisphenol A (BPA) have found that the search is costing millions and may not ultimately result in BPA-free foods. Companies no longer using cans with linings containing BPA have apparently found traces of the ubiquitous chemical in their foods and are trying to determine whether the source is cutting boards, latex gloves or even the food items themselves. Food manufacturers are not waiting for the government to act on proposals to ban the substance; they reportedly began searching for alternatives in 2008 after consumer pressure motivated manufacturers to remove BPA from plastic baby bottles. While it has been relatively easy for plastic-bottle makers to find a simple BPA substitute, canned-food manufacturers face problems such as alternative lining disintegration, taste issues and the inability of the other linings to withstand the high temperatures…
Category Archives Media Coverage
“Concern about toxins in the environment used to be a fringe view. But alarm has moved into the medical mainstream,” writes New York Times op-ed contributor Nicholas Kristof in this February 25, 2010, piece examining a purported shift in how the scientific community perceives the likelihood that ubiquitous chemicals affect the developing brain. Kristof references a forthcoming opinion piece in Pediatrics that reportedly cites “historically important, proof-of-concept studies that specifically link autism to environmental exposures experienced prenatally.” Although the Pediatrics editorial apparently focuses on the impact of medications such as thalidomide, misoprostol and valproic acid, Kristof extends his concern to other chemicals such as phthalates and bisphenol A. “At a time when many Americans still use plastic containers to microwave food, in ways that make toxicologists blanch, we need accelerated research, regulations and consumer protection,” he opines. While Kristof warns against “sensationalizing risks,” he nevertheless urges consumers “to be wary…
“Chalk it up to the lack of willpower, sway of culture, or love of the processed carb, but humans aren’t always rational eaters,” argues Sarah Elizabeth Richards in this February 16, 2010, Slate article that questions the effectiveness of efforts to make calorie counts more visible on menus and food packaging. Citing numerous recent studies that cast doubt on these labeling practices, Richards maintains that not only are “calorie counts irrelevant for consumers who don’t know how many calories they’re supposed to be eating in a day,” but “[it] can also be hard to take the counts seriously when you’re not even sure they’re accurate.” For Richards, although menu labeling and federal initiatives to realign product serving sizes are laudable, it remains difficult for most consumers to implement these tools as part of a sensible diet plan. She particularly focuses on a study published in the February 2010 edition of…
“In their critics’ eyes, producers of sugar-sweetened drinks are acting a lot like the tobacco industry of old: marketing heavily to children, claiming their products are healthy or at worst benign, and lobbying to prevent change,” begins New York Times columnist Mark Bittman in this article questioning whether aggressive public health initiatives, like those deployed to discourage smoking, could similarly curb soda consumption. Noting that Americans drink “roughly 50 gallons per person per year,” Bittman contests the value of industry claims that “in moderate quantities soda isn’t harmful, nor is it addictive.” His article goes on to summarize the arguments made by policy makers and advocates in favor of “a special tax on soda, similar to those on tobacco, gasoline and alcoholic beverages.” In particular, he cites the Rudd Center’s director, Kelly Brownell, who maintains that, “Unless food marketing changes, it’s hard to believe that anything else can work.” “In the…
This article claims that recent efforts to monitor and regulate marketing to children has had “an interesting side effect,” that is, a shift away from traditional tactics to “games, contests and events where the advertiser has only a subtle presence— exactly the opposite of what some of the advocacy groups were aiming for.” According to New York Times journalist Stephanie Clifford, children’s publications have increasingly sought to integrate corporate sponsorships with contests and features that emphasize their content. “Instead of just a straight selling of product, it’s all about how we tell the message in the magazine and how we engage with the kids,” stated one spokesperson for National Geographic Kids, which reported a decline in ad revenue “largely because of the economy but in part because of heightened concern about food advertising.” “But these kinds of strategies, created in part to sidestep advocates’ criticisms, are upsetting them all the…
This article discusses the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) renewed interest in revising its approach to food serving sizes as front-of-package labeling gains traction in the marketplace. According to Times writer William Neuman, “The push to re-evaluate serving size comes as the F.D.A. is considering ways to better convey nutrition facts to hurried consumers, in particular by posting key information on the front of packages. Officials say such labeling will be voluntary, but the agency must set rules to prevent companies from highlighting the good things about their products, like a lack of trans fats, while ignoring the bad, like a surfeit of unhealthy saturated fats.” Created in the 1990s to help shoppers “compare the nutritional values of different products,” serving sizes are based on eating habit surveys taken during the 1970s and 1980s. Neuman claims, however, that while many people “might eat two or three times” the serving size…
According to this article, pressure from the beverage industry has made policymakers think twice about imposing a tax on sugary beverages, which some have viewed as a way to address both revenue deficits and obesity. The reporters discuss how Congress has handled the issue since the Obama administration indicated an interest in the tax in 2009 and public health advocates testified before a Senate committee urging support for the proposal. They note how a coalition of business interests “operating under the name Americans Against Food Taxes,” quickly mobilized an array of organizations, including the National Hispanic Medical Association, to lobby against the tax. Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center on Food Policy and Obesity, apparently responded to the involvement of health groups in the industry initiative by saying, “It’s all about payback. Public health advocates ran into the same phenomena when seeking to increase taxes on tobacco.” The…
This article chronicles a growing movement among “normal weight folks” who have become “vocal, sometimes vehemently so, in their support for ‘sin taxes’ on junk foods and soda,” and who have “increasingly attacked, with words or actions, the overweight or obese.” Jameson quotes Douglas Metz, chief of health services for a San Diego-based company that offers wellness programs to employers, as saying: “Americans as a society are getting fed up with the matter of obesity. No doubt about it. Some pockets of society are taking positive action, and unfortunately others are taking negative action. That’s what happens when a society hasn’t figured out what the fix is.” Jameson cites several examples, including the recent unsuccessful plan of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania that sought the body mass index of every enrolling student and required the obese to lose weight or take a fitness class before they could graduate and the attempt…
In this article, Slate contributor James McWilliams questions “the conventional wisdom among culinary tastemakers” that pasture-raised cattle does not harbor E. coli O157:H7 at the same levels as conventional livestock. “In fact,” he writes, “exploring the connection between grass-fed beef and these dangerous bacteria offers a disturbing lesson in how culinary wisdom becomes foodie dogma and how foodie dogma can turn into a recipe for disaster.” McWilliams traces the misconception to a 2006 New York Times op-ed piece by food activist Nina Planck, who claimed that E. coli was “not found in the intestinal tracts of cattle raised on their natural diets of grass, hay, and other fibrous forage.” According to McWilliams, Planck drew her conclusions from a 1998 report published in Science that found more acid-resistant E. coli in grain-fed cattle, but failed to specifically test for the O157:H7 strain. Further studies have apparently shown that grass-fed cattle “do…
In the fifth and final installment of a series about genetically modified (GM) crops, energy and environmental writer Paul Voosen discusses the growing ranks of organic proponents who have begun to embrace GM crops to achieve “sustainable agricultures that can feed the world.” Voosen describes a plant scientist who manipulates rice in the lab and is married to an organic farmer. Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak apparently co-authored a book, recently released in paperback, titled Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food.” They contend that current and future generations of GM crops, responsibly managed, would provide for the world’s hungry from lands already degraded. According to Voosen, their work has inspired others, such as Steward Brand, the passionate environmentalist who founded the Whole Earth Catalog and is now apparently “full-throated in his defense of GM crops.” Brand is quoted as saying, “I daresay the environmental movement has…
