According to a Harvard microbiologist, 80 to 90 percent of the hard cheese produced in the United States uses, as part of the curd-separation process, rennet made with a genetically modified (GMO) ingredient—chymosin. Noting that “chymosin produced by E. coli was the first enzyme made with recombinant DNA technology approved for use in food. . . all the way back in 1991,” Kevin Bonham asks whether GMO technology opponents would object to eating cheese made with this type of chymosin, which is also naturally occurring in calf stomachs and chemically indistinguishable from its animal-derived counterpart, and whether companies, such as Whole Foods, promising to label their GMO products will use the label on cheese products. Apparently, “[m]ost regulatory agencies don’t consider chymosin an ingredient.” Bonham also reports that “the problem goes way beyond cheese,” because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration “has approved over 30 recombinant enzymes for use in…
Category Archives Other Developments
The U.K.-based Action on Sugar campaign has issued a new survey allegedly revealing “the shockingly high and unnecessary levels of sugar in carbonated sugar-sweetened soft drinks,” according to a June 12, 2014, press release. After analyzing 232 sugar-sweetened drinks sold in grocery stores, Action on Sugar researchers reported that 79 percent of surveyed beverages contain six or more teaspoons of sugar per can. In particular, the campaign singled out ginger beer as one category of sugar-sweetened beverage with higher sugar levels than expected, recommending that these drinks contain only 9 grams of sugar per 100 milliliters. “Added sugars are completely unnecessary in our diets and are strongly linked to obesity and Type II Diabetes, as well as to dental caries; which remains a major problem for children and adults,” said Action on Sugar Chair Graham MacGregor. “Replacing sugar with sweeteners is not the answer: we need to reduce overall sweetness…
A dietitian and nutrition educator associated with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), which promotes a vegan lifestyle and has apparently been associated with the animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, draws parallels between the tobacco and food industries in an article titled “Why Big Food is the Big Tobacco of the 21st Century.” Susan Levin notes that in 1962, the Royal College of Physicians called for restricting tobacco advertising and sales to children and increasing the cigarette tax, and that within the last week the United Nations “made almost the exact same recommendations about unhealthful foods, which it says are now a bigger threat to global health than tobacco.” Levin implies that the food industry distorts science to market a dangerous product, just like tobacco, and cites as an example how cigarette manufacturers reformulated their products to low-tar and filtered when sales declined “after…
The Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has released a new brief updating its annual report on trends in TV food advertising to young people. Documenting changes “in the total number of food-related TV ads viewed by children and adolescents from 2002 to 2013,” the brief concludes that despite the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), “the total number of food and beverage ads viewed by children has increased by 8% and advertising to adolescents increased 25% since 2007.” Although youth exposure to food-related TV ads apparently peaked in 2004, Rudd Center alleges that the number of food- and beverage-related TV ads viewed by children younger than age 12 has only increased since companies adopted CFBAI in 2007. According to the brief, TV ads for fast-food restaurants represented 23 percent of food-related ads viewed by children and 28 percent of ads viewed by adolescents in 2013. In…
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has informed the CEO of Campbell Soup Co. that it will seek injunctive and monetary relief if the company continues to (i) “mislead consumers about the juice content, nutritional value, and healthfulness of its Products”; (ii) “represent that its V8 V-Fusion Refreshers contain no added sugars”; and (iii) mak[e] deceptive nutrient content claims on its V8 Splash Products in violation of United States Food and Drug Administration’s (‘FDA’) Fortification rule.” At issue are products from the V8 V-Fusion Refreshers (20-25% juice) variety of the V8 V-Fusion product line and the entire line of V8 Splash juice drink products, including V8 Splash (5-10% juice), Diet V8 Splash (8% juice) and V8 Splash Smoothies (10% juice). CSPI characterizes these products as “sugary juice cocktails.” According to CSPI, the marketing and labeling for these products are confusingly similar to V8 100 percent juice products…
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) has reportedly partnered with the restaurant review website Yelp to help health officials discover foodborne illness outbreaks and the restaurants allegedly responsible for them. While investigating an outbreak of gastrointestinal disease associated with a particular restaurant, DOHMH officials had apparently noted that patrons had reported illnesses on Yelp that had not been reported to DOHMH. To explore the potential of using Yelp to identify unreported outbreaks, DOHMH then collaborated with Columbia University and Yelp on a pilot project to identify restaurant reviews on Yelp that referred to foodborne illness. Researchers analyzed approximately 294,000 Yelp restaurant reviews from July 2012 to March 2013, using a software program developed specifically for the project. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which published a report detailing the project, the program identified 893 reviews that required further evaluation by a foodborne…
The Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has issued new guidelines that aim to “educate media representatives on how to appropriately discuss the disease of obesity in the media.” Titled “Guidelines for Media Portrayals of Individuals Affected by Obesity,” the report notes that the media is an “important and influential source of information about obesity,” and the manner in which obesity, weight loss and weight maintenance are portrayed, described and framed by the media “profoundly shapes the public’s understanding and attitudes toward these important health issues and the individuals affected by them.” Describing the media as “an especially pervasive source of stigmatization against people with obesity,” Rudd Center researchers note that photographs and videos tend to portray people with obesity as headless (i.e., only from the shoulders down), from unflattering angles (e.g., with only their abdomens or lower bodies shown), and engaging in stereotypical behaviors (e.g., eating unhealthy foods…
Friends of the Earth has released a May 2014 report titled “Tiny Ingredients Big Risks,” claiming that some popular food products contain unlabeled manufactured nanomaterials. Based on information obtained from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN), the report identifies 94 food and beverage products—including almond milk, cereal, soy and dairy products, oils, and sports beverages—that purportedly contain nano-ingredients such as titanium dioxide, silver and “nano-sized self assembled structured liquids” known as micelles. According to the report, the number of products on this list has allegedly increased tenfold since the consumer group published its last report in 2008. “Friends of the Earth calls upon food companies and government regulators to stop this influx of nanofoods into the market, given the absence of regulations to ensure these novel products are safe for human health and the environment and labels to ensure consumer right to know,” opines…
Iowa State University Assistant Professor Austin Stewart has developed a virtual reality world that he says could be used to convince caged chickens that they are in a free-range environment. Stewart’s project, Second Livestock, envisions round skyscrapers filled with chickens wearing virtual-reality headsets and standing on omnidirectional treadmills. If implemented early in a chicken’s life, a chicken would believe that it is outside, Stewart suggests, and raising chickens in confinement could become more humane. While Stewart admits that his plan would be far too expensive to implement right now, “I had to show that this technology is plausible,” he said. See Ames Tribune, May 10, 2014. Issue 524
The New York City Food Policy Center at Hunter College has announced a May 20, 2014, meeting at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College in New York City, to discuss ways of translating conflicting information about salt into public health policy. Professor of Public Health at the City University of New York School of Public Health and Hunter College Nicholas Freudenberg is slated to moderate the panel with participants former Commissioner of Health, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Thomas Farley; and Professor and Department Chair of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University’s Sandro Galea Gelman. See NYCFoodPolicy.org, May 7, 2014. Issue 523
