The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has released a report claiming that candy, energy bars, chips, and cookies constitute 90 percent of foods marketed in store checkout lanes, while sugar-sweetened beverages constitute 60 percent of the beverage options. According to the study, which examined 30 retailers in the Washington, D.C., area, 86 percent of non-grocery retailers displayed foods and/or beverages in checkout aisles, but only one food store abstained from marketing foods or beverages at the point of sale. In addition, the one retailer with a designated “family-friendly” aisle still marketed allegedly unhealthy foods and beverages in amounts and percentages similar to those found in regular checkout lanes. Arguing that such practices promote obesity, the consumer watchdog is urging retailers to set “nutrition standards for their checkout offerings” by limiting the amount of calories, saturated and trans fats, added sugars, and sodium in food and beverage options. “In…
Category Archives Other Developments
The Consumer Reports (CR) Food Safety and Sustainability Center has reportedly tested more than 80 processed foods for genetically engineered (GE) corn or soy, concluding that products labeled “natural” contained GE ingredients in levels comparable to those of their conventional counterparts. After analyzing breakfast cereals, bars, corn chips and tortillas, baking mixes and flour, meat and dairy substitutes, and tofu/tempeh, CR reported that (i) the majority of corn and soy identified in conventional products was genetically modified; (ii) products deemed “no GMO” by the manufacturer were less than 0.9 percent GE corn or soy; and (iii) products bearing third-party “Organic” or “Non GMO Product Verified” claims also contained negligible amounts of GE corn or soy. Based on these findings, CR has dubbed “Natural” labels “not meaningful,” as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not enforce any formal definition for this label. In addition, CR Food Safety and Sustainability Center…
Animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is currently engaged in a campaign to ban foie gras production throughout the European Union (EU). Writing in the September 17, 2014, issue of The Parliament Magazine, PETA UK Director Mimi Bekhechi urges readers to sign a letter to EU officials calling on them to stop the production of foie gras, produced by force-feeding ducks and geese to enlarge their livers, in Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, and Spain. Bekhechi cites scientific evidence as clear proof “that the production of foie gras is not only cruel but also incompatible with the European Commission’s regulations on food production.” According to PETA, more than 200,000 individuals have already signed the letter. PETA also claims that “many animals on foie gras farms are kept in cramped cages that do not comply with Council of Europe recommendations.” Issue 538
Yale University has announced that the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity will move to the University of Connecticut’s (UConn’s) Center for Health, Intervention and Prevention in January 2015 to help launch a major initiative prioritizing “health, wellness, and obesity prevention as an integral part of the University’s mission.” According to a September 12, 2014, press release, “[t]he move will allow Rudd Center researchers to expand their work and build new collaborations with UConn experts on nutrition, public policy, psychology, agriculture, economics, and obesity.” Among other things, the partnership aims to encourage new research on a wide variety of obesity-related topics, including: (i) “economic incentives and the role of marketing in food choices”; (ii) “genetic and neurophysiological moderators of risk for obesity”; (iii) “chemosensory perception in humans and how it influences food preference and intake”; (iv) “weight management interventions for adults and children”; (v) “[the] effects of cholesterol-lowering medications…
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Berkeley City Council last week each passed resolutions urging federal lawmakers to pass the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2013 (H.R. 1150) and the Preventing Antibiotic Resistance Act of 2013 (S. 1256). “Twenty-three thousand people die each year in the United States from antibiotic-resistant infections,” a Food & Watch representative was quoted as saying. “The public and elected leaders must take action to keep antibiotics working for people.” The San Francisco resolution also asks the city’s Department of the Environment to consider reducing purchases of agricultural products derived from animals using non-therapeutic antibiotics and residents of the city and county of San Francisco to reduce or eliminate their consumption of such products. See Food & Water Watch News Release, September 15, 2014.
Georgetown public health law professors opine in the September 15, 2014, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that New York’s high court, in striking down the New York City Board of Health’s sugary drink portion size rule, could have effectively chilled “local innovation, given local agencies’ unique position to devise innovative solutions to urgent health concerns.” More information about the court’s ruling appears in Issue 528 of this Update. The authors contend that the court narrowly construed the board’s authority which “ignored its rich historical legacy” and failed to consider that “[w]ith the epidemiologic transition from infectious to noncommunicable diseases, today’s salient threats include poor diet, physical inactivity, and smoking,” matters that they believe should be within the board’s purview. Noting how tobacco control has involved a series of interventions, including tax increases, marketing restrictions and public smoking bans, they suggest that while “[the] portion cap,…
California-based ChangeLab Solutions, an interdisciplinary public health advocacy group focused on policy reform, is holding a September 24, 2014, Webinar to discuss the potential impact of mandatory warning labels on sugar-sweetened beverages in reducing the rates of youth and adult obesity and diabetes. Webinar panelists will reportedly discuss lessons learned from failed California legislation (S.B. 1000) that would have required such warnings on SSBs, resources for driving similar strategies at the state and local level, and SSB warnings’ impact on the health of communities of color. Program faculty will include a senior staff attorney at ChangeLab Solutions, the executive directors of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy and Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, and the director of health promotion policy at Center for Science in the Public Interest. To learn more about the event, please click here. Issue 535
In its October 2014 issue, Consumer Reports will publish an analysis of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) data that supported the agency’s recommendations for fish intake by pregnant women and children, released jointly as draft guidance with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in June 2014. The magazine compiled a list of low-mercury—including haddock, trout, catfish, and crab—and lowest-mercury fish—including shrimp, tilapia, oysters, and wild and Alaska salmon—and detailed the amounts considered safe for consumption for young children and women of childbearing age. The guide includes more conservative advice than the draft guidance from FDA and EPA, such as recommending that most women and young children avoid marlin and orange roughy in addition to the listed swordfish, shark, king mackerel, and gulf tilefish. The magazine cites Deborah Rice, co-author of the EPA document that established the current limit on methylmercury consumption as 0.1 microgram per kilogram of body weight…
The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund has published a white paper titled “Ending the Overuse of Antibiotics in Livestock Production: The Case for Reform.” Contending that the use of antibiotics in healthy animals to accelerate their growth or “prevent disease caused by unhealthy and unsanitary conditions” has accelerated the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the paper calls on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to act immediately to restrict the use of antibiotics in livestock production. According to the consumer-interest group’s paper, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that some 2 million Americans are sickened each year by drug-resistant bacteria, and of those, 23,000 die. The paper also states that more than “70% of antibiotics in classes used in human medicine are sold for use in food animals.” FDA data reportedly indicate that in 2011, 29.9 million pounds of antibiotics were sold in the…
Shook attorneys Ann Havelka and Ryan Farnsworth have authored an August 18, 2014, Law360 article detailing “the first major overhaul of the nation’s poultry inspection system in nearly 60 years.” Describing the voluntary and mandatory aspects of the final rule issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the article provides an overview of the regulations most likely to affect industry as the onus for inspection shifts from government agencies to business operators. FSIS officially published the final rule in the August 20, 2014, edition of the Federal Register. Additional information about the regulations appears in Issue 532 of this Update. Issue 535
