Speaking during a North American Meat Association conference in Chicago, Canada Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz reportedly called on the United States to resolve a dispute over country-of-origin labeling (COOL) requirements for pork and beef by including provisions in the Farm Bill currently under consideration in the U.S. Congress. Ritz claimed that the rules, now before a World Trade Organization (WTO) compliance panel to decide whether provisions found in violation of WTO obligations now conform since they were revised, have cost Canada more than $1 billion annually. He also indicated that Canada has already prepared a list of retaliatory measures it will take if WTO rules in its favor. National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson reportedly bristled at the minister’s remarks, saying “Recent threats by the Canadian Agriculture Minister are unjustified and out of line. As a sovereign nation, we should not take direction from Canada. They do not dictate what…
At the behest of the European Commission, the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA’s) Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA Panel) has published population reference intakes (PRIs) for vitamin C and adequate intakes (AIs) for manganese “as part of its ongoing work on Dietary Reference Values (DRVs).” Basing its conclusions on the quantity of vitamin C that balances metabolic vitamin C losses in healthy adults, the scientific opinion on vitamin C proposes (i) an average requirement (AR) of 90 mg/day and a PRI of 110 mg/day for men; (ii) an AR of 80 mg/day and a PRI of 95 mg/day for women; and (iii) a PRI of 20 mg/day for infants aged 7-11 months. For children and adolescents, the NDA Panel has set PRIs ranging from 20 mg/day for children aged 1-3 years, to 100 and 90 mg/day for boys and girls aged 15-17 years. It also notes that pregnant…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS) has issued a final rule amending the meat and poultry products inspection regulations “to expand the circumstances in which FSIS will generically approve the labels of meat and poultry products.” Effective January 6, 2014, the final rule will also consolidate the regulations governing meat and poultry product label approvals under a new Code of Federal Regulations part. Under the new regulations, FSIS will still require establishments to submit for evaluation certain types of labeling, “e.g., labels for temporary approval, labels for products produced under religious exemption, labels for products for export with labeling deviations, and labels with claims and special statements.” In particular, FSIS will continue to review the following special statements and claims: (i) “[c]laims relating a product’s nutrient content to a health or a disease condition”; (ii) “statements that identify a product as ‘organic’ or containing organic…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has announced a final rule intended to bring its import regulations for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in line with “internationally-accepted scientific literature and standards set by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).” According to a November 1, 2013, press release, the new rule will require APHIS to use OIE criteria and categories to determine BSE risk classification when setting import policy for a particular country. It will also allow APHIS “to conduct its own assessment when deemed necessary, such as when a country is not yet classified by the OIE for BSE risk and requests that APHIS conduct a risk evaluation using criteria equivalent to that used by OIE.” “This action will bring our BSE import regulations in line with international standards, which call for countries to base their trade policies on the actual risk of animals…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a request for comments regarding a proposed information collection about food labeling regulations. According to FDA, current approval periods for information collection requests regarding (i) third-party disclosure burdens about the amount of trans fatty acids present in a food, and (ii) voluntary declarations of the quantitative amount and the percent of Daily Value of a dietary ingredient on a “per day” basis in addition to the required “per serving” basis, have expired. To remedy the oversight, to most appropriately streamline these information collections, and to eliminate redundancy in its information collection requests, FDA seeks to revise the collection to “include these third party disclosure elements and have included them in the burden estimates and discussion.” Comments will be accepted until December 31, 2013. See Federal Register, November 1, 2013.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a request for comments concerning a proposed information collection for a Food Safety Survey. Specifically, the agency seeks comment on the following questions: (i) is the information collection necessary and will it provide practical utility; (ii) is the estimate of the burden of the information collection, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used, accurate; (iii) can the quality, utility and clarity of the information be enhanced; and (iv) how can the burden of the information collection on respondents be minimized. The Food Safety Survey, which the agency notes will contain many of the same questions and topics as previous Food Safety Surveys, will also be updated to explore emerging consumer food safety topics and expand understanding of previously asked topics. New topics to be explored include the increase in listeriosis rates in people older than age 60; consumer understanding of…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “has tentatively determined that partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs), which are the primary dietary source of industrially produced trans fatty acids, or trans fat, are not generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for any use in food based on current scientific evidence establishing the health risks associated with the consumption of trans fat, and therefore that PHOs are food additives.” If the agency finalizes this determination, “food manufacturers would no longer be permitted to sell PHOs, either directly or as ingredients in another food product, without prior FDA approval for use as a food additive.” It would not, however, affect the trans fat that occurs naturally in small amounts in meat and dairy products. Announcing the initiative, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said, “The FDA’s action today is an important step toward protecting more Americans from the potential dangers of trans fat. Further reduction in the…
A recent study has reportedly concluded that an “inflammatory dietary pattern” (IDP) is linked to higher depression risk, raising questions about whether chronic inflammation “may underlie the association between diet and depression.” Michael Lucas, et al., “Inflammatory dietary pattern and risk of depression among women,” Brain, Behavior and Immunity, October 2013. Defined as a dietary pattern that is positively associated with all inflammatory biomarkers, IDP for the purposes of the study represented a diet “relatively high in sugar-sweetened soft drinks, refined grains, red meat, diet soft drinks, margarine, other vegetables, and fish but low in wine, coffee, olive oil, green leafy and yellow vegetables.” Using food questionnaire data from 43,685 women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study over a 12-year follow-up period, Harvard School of Public Health researchers reported a dose-response relationship between IDP score and depression risk for both stricter and broader definitions of depression. “In this large prospective…
A recent meta-analysis has allegedly found that “high consumption of red meat, especially processed meat, may increase all-cause mortality.” Susanna Larsson and Nicola Orsini, “Red Meat and Processed Meat Consumption and All-Cause Mortality: A Meta-Analysis,” American Journal of Epidemiology, October 2013. Based on data from nine prospective studies, the meta-analysis focused on reported relative risks associated with the consumption of unprocessed red meat (“beef, pork, lamb, or game”) and processed meat (“any meat preserved by smoking, salting, curing, or by the addition of chemical preservatives”). “Overall,” states the study, “those in the highest category of processed meat and total red meat consumption had increased all-cause mortality of 23% and 29%, respectively, compared with those in the lowest category.” The authors also noted that unprocessed red meat “was not significantly associated with all-cause mortality,” hypothesizing that the added salt in processed meat “may increase all-cause mortality by increasing the risk of…
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Keep A Breast Foundation have released an October 2013 report detailing how to avoid exposure to certain endocrine disruptors allegedly found in food, food packaging and other consumer products. Titled “The Dirty Dozen: 12 Hormone-Altering Chemicals and How to Avoid Them,” the report singles out bisphenol A, dioxins, atrazine, phthalates, perchlorate, fire retardants, lead, arsenic, mercury, perfluorinated chemicals, organophosphate pesticides, and glycol ethers as among “the worst hormone disrupters.” In particular, EWG argues that the interference of these substances with hormone production and signaling has been linked to cancer, reproductive problems, obesity, early puberty, heart disease, and other health conditions. To this end, the report urges consumers to avoid canned foods, thermal receipts, plastic food containers, plastic wrap, and non-stick pans, among other products. It also recommends that readers increase their consumption of organic products as well as sustainable seafood, such as wild salmon…
