The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has reportedly purchased stock in Jack in the Box Inc. and Steak n’ Shake Co. in an effort to persuade each restaurant chain “to implement the types of basic animal welfare changes many of its competitors have made.” The activist group has criticized both companies for allegedly using “eggs from caged hens, pork from crated pigs, and poultry from producers that use a particularly cruel but standard method of slaughter.” HSUS has purportedly employed similar tactics to influence other establishments, in addition to supporting legislation in Michigan and California that phases out “extreme confinement of certain farm animals.” One HSUS spokesperson also stated that these production methods are at odds with “public opposition to farm animal abuse,” opining that Jack in the Box’s “history with food safety” should make “improving conditions on the factory farm . . . a top priority.” See…
Category Archives Other Developments
The Canadian government has announced a January 20, 1010, webcast titled “Health Claims in Canada: An Update on Function Claims and Probiotic Claims for Food.” Presented by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the Webcast will (i) “provide an update on the development of a modernized framework for health claims for food and the future directions for managing health claims”; (ii) “present new guidance on function claims and probiotic claims, and the requirements for scientific evidence to validate claims” and (iii) provide insights into CFIA’s enforcement approach.
The American Lawyer has named Shook, Hardy & Bacon as a finalist in the Product Liability category of its Litigation Department of the Year Awards. The firm was recognized “for the breadth of its work, from wins in traditional one-off cases for clients like Kia Motors America, Inc., to its role in managing the massive Engle tobacco litigation in Florida for Altria Group, Inc.” The legal magazine, which invites the largest U.S. firms to participate in its biannual competition, also cited the firm’s pharmaceutical defense work and its attraction of clients through the use of alternative fee arrangements. See The American Lawyer, January 1, 2010. Meanwhile, Law360 has recognized Shook, Hardy & Bacon as a Product Liability Defense Firm of the Year. The publication cited medical device and pharmaceutical victories that the firm secured for its clients and quoted firm chair John Murphy, who attributes its success to the “Midwestern work…
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has issued a report that claims state health departments completed fewer foodborne outbreak investigations in 2007 than in the previous decade. The consumer watchdog found that states reported 33 percent fewer fully investigated outbreaks to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2007 than in 2002. Of the nearly 1,100 outbreaks reported in 2007, only 378 cases identified both a food and the pathogen, the mark of a complete investigation. “The decline in fully-investigated outbreaks could reflect a serious gap in state public health spending,” Caroline Smith DeWaal, the group’s food safety director, was quoted as saying in a December 23, 2009, press release. CSPI analyzed a total of 4,638 illness outbreaks linked to specific foods involving 117,136 individual illnesses between 1998 and 2007. The 10-year data analysis showed that eggs dropped out of the top five causes of outbreaks, which…
The Cancer Prevention Coalition (CPC) is praising a recent policy statement issued by the American Public Health Association’s Governing Council, opposing the continued sale and use of genetically engineered hormonal rBGH milk and meat adulterated with sex hormones. CPC is a Chicago-based, non-profit, public-health advocacy organization. Samuel Epstein, CPC chair and professor emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the University of Illinois School of Public Health, claims recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone is injected into about 20 percent of U.S. dairy cows to increase milk production. “While industry claims that the hormone is safe for cows, and the milk is safe for consumers, this is blatantly false,” Epstein wrote on December 23, 2009. He also claims that “beef produced in the United States is heavily contaminated with natural or synthetic sex hormones, which are associated with an increased risk of reproductive and childhood cancers.”
The New York Times recently published an investigative report that questions the safety of beef processed with ammonia to kill E. coli and Salmonella. According to the article, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has exempted one company, Beef Products Inc. (BPI), from routine testing requirements since 2007 because the processor apparently claimed that its ammonia treatment destroyed pathogens “to an undetectable level.” A supplier for fast-food chains and the school lunch program, BPI also purportedly indicated that its ammoniated trimmings, when mixed with untreated meat, would sterilize ground beef. “Given the technology, we firmly believe that the two pathogens of major concern—E. coli O157:H7 and salmonella—are on the verge of elimination,” BPI founder Eldon Roth allegedly told USDA in 2001. “But government and industry records obtained by The New York Times show that in testing for the school lunch program, E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens…
Food & Water Watch has issued an alert seeking support for its call on the Obama administration to enforce antitrust laws against the agribusiness industry. According to the alert, “[m]ore than 85 percent of U.S. beef cattle are slaughtered by just four companies,” “[t]wo companies sell half of U.S. corn seed,” “[o]ne company controls 40 percent of the U.S. fluid milk supply,” and “[f]ive firms dominate the grocery sector, ensuring that low prices paid to farmers aren’t passed along to consumers at the store.” Referring to hearings planned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Justice in 2010 to consider the “state of competition in agriculture markets,” the consumer organization has urged supporters to let these agencies “know that they must do a thorough investigation of the lack of competition in agriculture, as well as take immediate action to deal with unfair practices and lack of competition…
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has issued a proposal to improve packaged food nutrition labels. Among other matters, the proposal calls for more emphasis to be placed on calories, added sugars, saturated and trans fats, and sodium. If any of the latter ingredients exceed 20 percent of the recommended daily amount, CSPI calls for it to be listed in red and flagged as “high.” CSPI’s proposed nutrition label would also list ingredients in regular type separated by bullets, instead of in all capital letters, which the organization contends is hard to read. According to CSPI, the proposal, which compares an existing label with its recommended label, “exposes some of the tricks that occur on the front of the label, and unveils makeovers of the Nutrition Facts panel and ingredient lists to last for the next 15 years.” CSPI Executive Director Michael Jacobson was quoted as saying, “Foot…
Ocean Spray, which introduced its Choice® dried cranberries in March 2009, has called “inaccurate” National Consumer League (NCL) allegations that the product is falsely labeled because it contains more sugar than cranberry. The NCL also reportedly contended that Choice® sweetened dried cranberries, which are sold to food manufacturers for use in baked products, trail mix, granola bars, and cereals, are made from cranberry skins. NCL apparently had the product tested and is concerned whether enough cranberry is being used to confer the fruit’s purported health benefits. A company spokesperson was quoted as saying, “Our Choice product is made from Grade A superior frozen whole cranberries which are then sliced and sent through our patented process including infusion of sugar, citric acid and elderberry juice to infuse flavor and color specifically developed to meet our industrial consumers’ needs for their variety of recipes. Being made from whole cranberries, Choice retains many…
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has issued a report alleging that “nearly 80 percent of food ads on the popular children’s network Nickelodeon are for foods of poor nutritional quality.” Titled “Better-For-Who? Revisiting company promises on food marketing to children,” the analysis purportedly revealed that one-fourth of the food and beverage advertisements aired on Nickelodeon “were from companies that don’t participate in the industry’s self-regulatory program,” the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI). The watchdog also criticized CFBAI signatories for promoting products that failed to meet CSPI’s stringent nutritional benchmarks. “Of the 452 foods and beverages that companies say are acceptable to market to children, CSPI found that 267, or nearly 60 percent, do not meet CSPI’s recommended nutrition standards for food marketing to children,” claimed the group in a November 24, 2009, press release. “Nickelodeon should be ashamed that it earns so much money…
