The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has launched a consultation on its draft protocol for its scientific opinion on free sugars. The protocol responds to five member states' request seeking "a science-based cut-off value for a daily exposure to added sugars from all sources (i.e. sucrose, fructose, glucose, starch hydrolysates such as glucose syrup, high-fructose syrup and other isolated sugar preparations used as such or added during food preparation and manufacturing) which is not associated with adverse health effects." EFSA will not accept comments "related to policy or risk management aspects, which are out of the scope of EFSA's activity." Comments will be accepted until March 4, 2018.
The European Court of Justice has ruled that “Champagner Sorbet,” a frozen drink product made in Belgium and sold in Aldi stores, does not infringe the protected designation of wines made in the Champagne region of France. Comité Interprofessionel du Vin du Champagne v. Aldi Süd Dienstleistungs-GmbH & Co. OHG, No. C-393/16 (E.C.J., entered December 20, 2017). The Champagne producers group won an initial injunction, but an appeals court in Germany referred the issue for a preliminary ruling. Among its ingredients, Champagner Sorbet contains 12 percent Champagne. The court ruled that use of part of a protected designation of origin (PDO) term for the name of a product is not “misuse, imitation or evocation” if the product contains the protected ingredient. Here, the court found, Aldi used part of the PDO to “claim openly a gustatory quality connected with it.” As long as the product has, “as an essential characteristic,…
Mitch Daniels, president of Purdue University and former Indiana governor, argues in a Washington Post op-ed that the anti-GMO campaign is “cruel,” “heartless,” “inhumane” and “immoral.” With no credible scientific evidence and no record of adverse effects on human health or the environment to support it, Daniels asserts, the anti-GMO lobby is blocking “lifesaving” advances made by modern science that could help developing countries feed the globe’s rapidly expanding population. “[A] concerted, deep-pockets campaign, as relentless as it is baseless, has persuaded a high percentage of Americans and Europeans to avoid GMO products, and to pay premium prices for ‘non-GMO’ or ‘organic’ foods that may in some cases be less safe and less nutritious,” Daniels writes. “This is the kind of foolishness that rich societies can afford to indulge. But when they attempt to inflict their superstitions on the poor and hungry peoples of the planet, the cost shifts from affordable to dangerous…
After secretly filmed footage of an Idaho dairy farm drew national attention and threats against the owners, the Idaho legislature passed a law criminalizing entry, records access and the creation of recordings of agricultural production operations. The Animal Legal Defense Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union and 15 other plaintiffs challenged the law, and a federal district court invalidated it in 2015. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit has held that while two of the law’s provisions are “staggeringly overbroad” restrictions on speech, the other two survive scrutiny and do not violate the First Amendment. Animal Legal Def. Fund v. Wasden, No. 15-35960 (9th Cir., entered January 4, 2018). The panel held that Idaho cannot criminalize misrepresentations made to enter a production facility, partly because the language was overbroad and partly because it was targeted at investigative journalism. “Even assuming Idaho has a compelling interest in regulating property rights and protecting…
A winery has filed a notice of opposition against BuzzFeed Inc.'s trademark application for Wordy Wine, a wine brand allowing purchases to customize the label. Kalaris v. BuzzFeed Inc., No. 91238653 (T.T.A.B., filed December 29, 2017). Although the words “Wordy Wine” do not appear on the purchaser’s custom label, Axios Napa Valley Wines alleges the term is nearly identical to the mark for its line of “Worthy” wines.
President Donald Trump has commuted the 27-year sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, a former kosher meatpacking plant executive convicted of 86 counts of federal bank fraud and money laundering. After Rubashkin was sentenced in 2009, politicians, law enforcement officials and legal experts argued that his case was tainted by prosecutorial misconduct, but the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his conviction and sentencing in 2011. Rubashkin and his family members were initially accused of a range of charges, including conspiracy to harbor undocumented immigrants for profit and child labor law violations.
In a December 2017 series of articles, Financial Times explored issues projected to affect the global food and beverage industry in the future. The Update's previous coverage of the issues examined can provide additional context to these evolving subjects. Genetically Modified (GM) Crops. Experts reportedly anticipate an increase in GM crop cultivation, which currently covers 185 million hectares worldwide. Makers of GM crops have faced opposition from a number of areas as use of their products has spread, sometimes inadvertently. In the United States, multiple jurisdictions have banned GM crops, but courts have invalidated some bans on the grounds of preemption. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has provided guidance on voluntary labeling of foods derived from GM crops, and Congress has directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to create a standard for mandatory disclosure. Europe has largely resisted GM crop cultivation; in April 2017, a majority of EU countries…
As the number of obese and overweight Americans has climbed, many people have searched for causes and prevention strategies, with some noting that fat may be "the next tobacco" as researchers continue to find links between obesity and a variety of health issues. Questions have arisen about whether some ingredients, such as cheese, cause behaviors that amount to addiction, and one study compared the neurological effects of high-fat foods to those of cocaine or heroin. Many have pointed to sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) as a significant cause of rising obesity rates in children. Researchers and health experts have sought an entity to blame—including food companies, marketing, grocery checkout lanes, genetics, neurobiology, environmental exposure, immunology and hormones. As consumers filed lawsuits alleging companies are to blame for the ill health effects associated with eating their products, state governments introduced and, in some cases, passed legislation to protect companies from lawsuits alleging weight gain as…
While food companies and consumer advocacy groups agree that Americans have the right to know the contents of their food, the ideal level of transparency has been debated in legislatures, before courts and in comments to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Consumers have been attracted to foods labeled as "natural," but they can turn litigious when they learn that "natural" foods may contain ingredients they to be “unnatural.” Despite requests, FDA has long resisted defining how "natural" may be used in food and beverage marketing, resulting in confusion for companies and consumers alike. "The 'natural' thing has always been such a morass," one Consumers Union analyst said in 2007. While FDA has sought information on the use of the term and promised to provide guidance, the lack of definition has led to companies regularly facing allegations that they intentionally mislead consumers by marketing their products as "natural." Controversial ingredients…
After California voters approved the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Prop. 65), the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) began publishing a list of chemicals "known to cause cancer or birth defects or other reproductive harm." Under the statute, companies must warn consumers about potential exposure to a listed chemical unless the exposures are low enough to pose "no significant risk" of the harms targeted by the provision. OEHHA's Prop. 65 actions can often precede similar efforts in other states, making California a primary battleground for regulations and bellwether cases. Prop. 65's list of chemicals must be updated annually to add chemicals "known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity," supported by "scientifically valid testing." The addition of a chemical can be a contentious process as the science supporting the addition is debated. For example, bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical found in plastics and epoxy…
