Chipotle Mexican Grill has filed a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) advising that the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia “is conducting an investigation into possible criminal securities law violations relating to our employee work authorization verification compliance and related disclosures and statements.” The probe follows investigations into the company’s compliance with immigration laws by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm and public disclosure requirements by SEC. According to news sources, the company, which has indicated its intent to fully cooperate with the investigations, was forced to fire some 450 employees in 2011, after it learned that illegal immigrants had been hired to work in its Minnesota restaurants. Since then, the company has reportedly been using Homeland Security’s E-Verify system to confirm employee eligibility. See Reuters and Law360, May 18, 2012; Bloomberg, May 21, 2012,
Category Archives Other Developments
An Ohio court has apparently released a 9-year-old boy from the supervision of Cuyahoga County Children & Family Services after he lost more than 50 pounds while in foster care and while living with an uncle in Columbus. Additional information about the case appears in Issue 421 of this Update. The boy, who came to the attention of authorities in March 2010 when he was taken to a hospital with breathing problems, was released to his mother’s custody under protective supervision in March 2012. He has gained a few pounds, but because he continues to work out regularly at a YMCA and has been monitored by a Big Brother, and because his mother will evidently be able to access agency assistance for 90 days, the court determined that the child’s interest had been sufficiently protected. During the most recent court proceedings, the prosecuting attorney reportedly recommended that the child’s mother…
A group calling itself “Supermoms Against Superbugs” reportedly gathered in Washington, D.C. recently to lobby for greater limits on antibiotics used in U.S. food production. Organized by the Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming and the American Academy of Pediatrics, the coalition included chefs, farmers, pediatricians, and consumers who participated in meetings with congressional staff, the Food and Drug Administration, and the White House Domestic Policy Council. See Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming Press Release, May 15, 2012.
Corporate Accountability International (CAI) has issued a May 2012 report that purportedly aims “to help parents, community residents, health professionals, activists, youth and others take action to safeguard their communities’ health against the abuses of global fast food corporations.” Outlining four policy approaches intended to reduce the “harmful influence of fast food corporations,” the report advocates (i) school policies that would curb fast food marketing to children, (ii) zoning laws that would reduce industry influence “in communities, hospitals and other institutions,” (iii) limits on “fast food promotions that target children,” and (iv) a reduction in public subsidies “for fast food corporations… as a means of leveling the playing field for businesses that sell healthier food.” To these ends, the report supplies 20 specific action items that call for, among other things, prohibiting toy giveaways in children’s meals and encouraging the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to crack down on…
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) recently issued a report questioning the ability of international governing bodies to adequately address the use of engineered nanoscale materials (ENMs) in food contact and packaging materials. Noting that the Codex Alimentarius Commission, operating under the auspices of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), “has yet to agree on any agri-nanotechnology standards, nor indeed, even to begin work on such standards to protect consumer health,” the IATP report calls for a renewed effort to assess and regulate ENMs as a whole before specific applications are released on the market. To this end, IATP policy analyst Steven Suppan provides an overview of Codex’s regulatory mechanisms in addition to outlining challenges unique to ENMs in food packaging, such as a dearth of scientific data and confusion over the definition of “nanomaterials.” In particular, Suppan urges Codex to avoid…
A Wisconsin-based cheese maker has reportedly agreed, under pressure from its Swiss parent and the Swiss gruyère industry, to cease using the word “gruyère” in labeling and promoting its Grand Cru Gruyère cheese. The change, effective in May 2013, was agreed to despite a recent decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) refusing the “le gruyère” trademark because “[t]he existence of seven U.S. cheese manufacturers of gruyère cheese and the widespread generic internet and dictionary usage . . . clearly demonstrate that gruyère has lost its geographical significance and is now viewed as a genus of cheese.” Geographical food and beverage designations are significant in Europe where many EU countries give them legal protection; a French reporter apparently visited Wisconsin to cover the negotiations leading to the agreement. She indicated her wish that American cheese makers adopt the European approach and name their cheeses after the area of…
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has published a May 8, 2012, consensus report assessing more than 800 obesity prevention strategies and identifying those “with the greatest potential to accelerate success.” Released at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Weight of the Nation™ conference and funded by the National Academies of Sciences, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, the report evidently focuses on five goals for preventing obesity: (i) “integrating physical activity into people’s daily lives”; (ii) “making healthy food and beverage options available everywhere”; (iii) “transforming marketing and messages about nutrition and activity”; (iv) “making schools a gateway to healthy weights”; and (v) “galvanizing employers and health care professionals to support healthy lifestyles.” Included in these goals are specific recommendations that address, among other things, sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, the availability of lower-calorie children’s meals in restaurants, nutritional labeling, and food and beverage marketing to children.…
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) has issued a May 1, 2012, report claiming that the majority of states have failed to adequately address youth exposure to alcohol advertising. According to a concurrent press release, CAMY researchers apparently reviewed state advertising laws to determine whether each law incorporated all, some or none of eight “best practices” designed to limit alcohol advertising that is likely to be viewed by children and underage youth. Their results purportedly revealed that no state successfully applied more than five of the eight recommended policies and only 11 states used more than one. In particular, CAMY has urged states looking to reduce youth exposure to alcohol marketing to (i) “prohibit false or misleading advertising;” (ii) “prohibit alcohol advertising that targets minors”; (iii) “establish jurisdiction over in-state electronic media (TV and radio)”; (iv) “restrict outdoor alcohol advertising in…
The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s) executive officer has co-authored a book examining America’s obesity epidemic. Judith Salerno’s The Weight of the Nation: To Win We Have to Lose was published to complement a four-part HBO documentary on obesity debuting May 14-15, 2012, and a national campaign to curb obesity rates, both of which were featured in Issue 423 of this Update. The book was co-written by the documentary’s executive producer, John Hoffman, and its co-producer, Alexandra Moss. According to IOM, the book explores “the array of factors that feed America’s obesity problem—from the human body itself, which evolved to crave more food than it needs, to restaurant portion sizes that pack a day’s worth of calories into one meal, to neighborhoods and workplaces that encourage little physical activity.” IOM also plans to release a report titled “Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention” at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Weight of…
New research conducted by Morando Soffritti, director of the Ramazzini Institute in Bologna, Italy, has allegedly found that male mice systematically dosed with sucralose throughout their life cycles were more likely to develop a specific type of cancer. Presented at the April 25 childhood Cancer 2012 Conference in London, the research evidently relied on 843 mice and appeared to identify a dose-dependent relationship between sucralose consumption and leukemia in male mice only. “Health concerns over aspartame are leading consumers to switch to the widely promoted alternative: sucralose,” said Soffritti, who has long lobbied European regulators to take aspartame off the market. “Now that we have found evidence of a link between sucralose and cancer in mice, similar research should be urgently repeated on rats, and large-scale observational studies should be set up to monitor any potential cancer risk to human health.” See Childhood Cancer 2012 Press Release, April 25, 2012. Meanwhile,…
