Buckfast Abbey, an English monastery approaching its millennial anniversary, has drawn criticism for its production of a sweet caffeinated wine, The New York Times reports. The beverage, which the abbey sells in 750-milliliter bottles through a distributor, is 15 percent alcohol and contains more than 300 milligrams of caffeine. The fortified wine was originally sold as a tonic, intended for medicinal purposes, but in recent years has gained popularity in Scotland among young people. Critics cite a 2009 report for the Scottish prison service that purportedly found that four in 10 young offenders ranked Buckfast tonic wine as their favorite drink, and 43.3 percent of respondents said they consumed the beverage before committing a crime. “There is no doubt that caffeine-alcohol mixers make wide-awake drunks,” a physician and member of Scottish Parliament, Richard Simpson, told the Times. “If you drink enough alcohol you eventually become comatose, but if you combine…
Category Archives Media Coverage
The Atlantic’s February 11, 2015, profile of blogger Vani Hari—also known as “The Food Babe”—highlights the growing rift between the scientific community and consumer activists who position themselves as dietary crusaders, despite having “no training in human metabolism, toxicology, or environmental science.” Titled The Food Babe: Enemy of Chemicals, the article by Atlantic Senior Editor James Hamblin examines a new crop of writers and activists who have harnessed the Internet to campaign against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and other food ingredients deemed “unnatural.” With a new book and TV show in the works, Hari has evidently mobilized what she calls “The Food Babe Army” to besiege companies that use allegedly suspect substances, in the process drawing the ire of “many scientists who believe her claims are inaccurate or even dangerous.” In particular, Hamblin speaks to scientists who have found themselves in Hari’s crosshairs for questioning her tactics or evidence. The…
A February 2, 2015, New Yorker article following the career of plaintiffs’ attorney Bill Marler examines how litigation has shaped the food-safety landscape in the absence of robust regulatory oversight. Viewing the U.S. inspection and recall system through the lens of a 2013 Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak that reportedly sickened an estimated 18,000 people, Wil Hylton interviews Marler as well as current and former federal officials about the complicated evolution and sometimes contradictory mandates of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other agencies responsible for food safety. In particular, the article notes that many regulators credited Marler with changing the role of lawsuits in food policy. “Where people typically thought of food safety as this three-legged stool—the consumer groups, the government and the industry—Bill sort of came in as a fourth leg and actually was able to effect changes in a way that none of…
While laws mandating disclosure of the presence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on food labels are debated in statehouses, independent organizations such as the Non-GMO Project are offering certification for non-GMO products. NPR tracked how a food company earns the “Verified” label from the Non-GMO Project, beginning with an Iowa-based company called FoodChain ID that guides companies through the process of certification. FoodChain ID first identifies all of the ingredients in the product—including those not actually listed on the label—such as “all the processing aids, the carriers and all the inputs that go into a product.” It then determines the source of each ingredient and input and individually verifies its seclusion from GMOs. “If there’s honey in cookies, for example,” NPR notes, “the company will have to show that the bees that make the honey aren’t feeding near genetically modified corn. When there’s even the smallest risk that an ingredient…
According to a January 1, 2015, New York Times article by Andrew Pollack, the advent of new technologies has created a loophole in federal regulations for companies looking to market genetically-engineered (GE) crops. Noting that new techniques do not involve the transfer of genetic material from other species, use bacterium to insert foreign materials or rely on viruses to manipulate plant DNA, Pollack writes that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) lacks the authority to regulate these GE crops under its current mandate to protect against plant pests, including insects or pathogens. Although consumer watchdogs have warned that all GE crops could have unforeseen ecological consequences, proponents have argued that easing regulatory burdens will lower barriers to market entry and allow smaller companies to participate in product development. “Regulators around the world are now grappling with whether these techniques are even considered genetic engineering and how, if at all, they…
A January 5, 2015, post on NPR’s “The Salt” blog reports that trademark disputes have come to a head in the craft brewing market, where more than 3,000 companies compete for a dwindling number of pithy beer names. Although many brewers work to resolve issues outside the courtroom, there has also been an increase in litigation alleging trademark violations focused on overlapping product names, font styles and label designs. In some cases, brewers that have used beer names for decades have come under fire from new companies looking to trademark them. In particular, the article notes that many hop-related puns—such as “Hopscotch” and “Bitter End”—are currently used on more than one product. “American trademark law lumps breweries together with wineries and distilleries, making the naming game even more chancy,” concludes NPR. “Even imagery can be trademarked and protected in court.” Issue 550
Examining the evolution of the Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI), a recent Wired magazine article by Sam Apple explores how NuSI’s latest research efforts seek to test long-standing assumptions about the health effects of sugar and fat. Titled “Why Are We So Fat? The Multimillion-Dollar Scientific Quest to Find Out,” the article highlights the work of NuSI founders Peter Attia, a medical researcher, and Gary Taubes, a science journalist who has made a career out of exposing the allegedly tenuous evidence linking dietary nutrients to specific disease outcomes. “Taubes and Attia are firmly in the sugar-bad, saturated-fat-good camp,” reports Apple, pointing to an alternative hypothesis now popular in some scientific circles that blames table sugar and refined carbohydrates—as opposed to fats—for rising obesity rates. “But even they acknowledge they can’t be certain. That’s because, as Taubes eloquently argues, most of the existing knowledge gathered in the past five decades of research comes…
Discussing the expedited approval process for food additives that took effect 17 years ago, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Deputy Commissioner for Food Michael Taylor recently told Washington Post reporter Kimberly Kindy that the agency does not have “the information to vouch for the safety of many of these chemicals.” According to the August 17, 2014, article, the number of additives in the food supply has increased to 9,000 from 800 over a 50-year span, in part because a voluntary certification system dependent on industry safety data has eclipsed FDA’s independent review process. Under the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) scheme, companies need only submit a summary of their safety research to FDA, shortening time to approval even for new and novel food additives. In particular, the Post highlights how a mycoprotein marketed as “Quorn” achieved GRAS status despite one undisclosed study allegedly showing that 5 percent of test…
Michael Specter has profiled “the Gandhi of grain,” Vandana Shiva, in a piece for the New Yorker that describes her as “a hero to anti-[genetically modified organisms (GMOs)] activists everywhere” while criticizing her inflammatory methods and unscientific arguments. Specter chronicles many of Shiva’s recent provocative statements—including a speech calling fertilizer “a weapon of mass destruction” and a tweet comparing GMOs on organic farms to rape—and attempts to debunk a few of her positions. In March 2014, Shiva told a Winnipeg food-rights group that GMOs and their associated herbicides caused the rise in autism, and Specter argues that she had merely confused causation with correlation, pointing out that the rise in autism also correlates with the sale of organic produce, the sale of high-definition televisions and the number of Americans who commute to work each day by bicycle. In addition, Shiva has apparently stated that the use of GM cotton in…
Shook, Hardy & Bacon Partner Marc Shelley and Associate Emily Fedeles recently spoke with Food Navigator about a proposal contained in French Minister of Health Marisol Touraine’s National Health Bill that would extend class actions to claims involving injuries to health. According to the August 7, 2014, article, the bill seeks to expand a new consumer law that established class action procedures for consumer-protection and antitrust claims but stopped short of including personal-injury claims. Noting that the current proposal targets food and beverage manufacturers making product-health claims, Shelley and Fedeles warn that these changes are only the latest in a “troubling” trend that could affect the entire industry as more member states move to expand the scope of their class-action laws. With companies granted only one opportunity to defend against collective claims, Fedeles adds, “[y]ou only get one bite at the apple and of course there’s a difference between paying…
