The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced an information collection requiring “renderers, feed manufacturers, and others involved in feed and feed ingredient manufacturing and distribution to maintain written procedures specifying the cleanout procedures or other means, and specifying the procedures for separating products that contain or may contain protein derived from mammalian tissue from all other protein products from the time of receipt until the time of shipment.”Intended to ensure compliance with regulations that prohibit certain animal proteins in ruminant feed to prevent the spread of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, the information collection will allow inspection personnel to confirm that an individual firm’s written procedures have been followed at the time of inspection. FDA has estimated that this information collection will involve an average annual burden of 14 hours per recordkeeping. Comments are requested by September 26, 2013. See Federal Register, August 17, 2013.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued a request for comments regarding changes to its procedure for Salmonella verification sampling of raw beef products. Among other things, FSIS stated that it will (i) begin “analyzing for Salmonella all raw beef samples that it collects for Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) analysis,” including all raw ground beef, beef manufacturing trimmings, bench trim, and other raw ground beef components; (ii) increase the raw ground beef sample used for Salmonella analysis from 25 grams to 325 grams; and (iii) discontinue Salmonella sampling set procedures in ground beef products, except in those establishments that exceeded the standard for Salmonella in their most recent tests. FSIS intends to use the results from its verification sampling program to develop new Salmonella performance standards for ground beef products and to estimate Salmonella prevalence in raw ground beef and trimmings. Comments will be accepted…
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) has sent an August 23, 2013, letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Under Secretary for Food Safety Elisabeth Hagen about “the ongoing problems with the Public Health Information System (PHIS) used by the Food Safety [and] Inspection Service (FSIS).” Citing reports that PHIS recently experienced a system-wide shutdown that lasted three days and allowed “millions of pounds of meat products” to leave processing plants without being tested for E. coli, DeLauro has asked USDA to provide a record of similar major incidents as well as an “analysis of the problems with the system, the impact on food safety and steps being taken to remedy these problems, including those related to software and connectivity.” She has also asked for details about the parameters of the PHIS contract “that ensure long-term solutions are made to issues that arise in the system,” in addition to “the metrics…
A recent study has reportedly claimed that higher levels of urinary bisphenol A (BPA) “were associated with a higher odds of obesity … and abnormal waist circumference-to-height ratio” in children. Donna Eng, et al., “Bisphenol A and Chronic Disease Risk Factors in US Children, Pediatrics, September 2013. Using data from 3,000 children ages 6 to 18 who were enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2010, University of Michigan researchers evidently sought to evaluate cross-sectional associations between urinary BPA “and multiple measures of adiposity, cholesterol, insulin, and glucose.” The results suggested that although urinary BPA was associated with an increased risk of obesity, “there were no associations found between BPA and laboratory measures of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk,” an outcome that apparently contrasted with previous adult studies. “Our findings suggest the need for longitudinal analysis to elucidate temporal relationships between BPA exposure and the development of obesity…
A recent New York Times report has claimed that the failure of a new computer system used by meatpacking and processing plant inspectors did not stop untested shipments of beef, poultry, pork, and lamb from reaching consumers. According to an August 17, 2013, article by Ron Nixon, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) acknowledged the August 8, 2013, system failure but “played down the threat to public safety and insisted that the breakdown of the $20-million computer system had not compromised the nation’s meat supply.” Designed to speed up the inspection process, which involves sending meat samples to laboratories to test for E. coli and other contaminants, the new computer system is an important piece of USDA’s plan “to provide real-time information about the conditions at meat processing plants and make it easy for the agency to track food safety problems before they led to outbreaks.” But Nixon notes that…
Although the typical energy drink user is reportedly young and male, a recent news source indicates that a new demographic is emerging as a top consumer of these beverages—busy, young mothers. Recent data from Nielsen reveal that busy mothers and their households—categorized as “Young Bustling Families”—are more likely to drink energy drinks than the average U.S. household, with a purchasing index of 150, higher than both “Young Transitionals” or young adults just out of college, and “Independent Singles” in their 20s and 30s. In response to these new consumption patterns, some energy drink makers have developed “women-friendly” energy drinks, including a pink lemonade-flavored beverage from which a portion of sales are donated to the Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade, and a beverage with no sugar or calories that apparently features a sweeter, more refreshing flavor, and is packaged in a white can with “feminine design elements.” See Convenience Store News,…
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, Consumers Union and Food Animal Concerns Trust have sent a letter urging U.S. delegates to an upcoming U.N. food standards agency meeting about residues of veterinary drugs in food to ask other countries to stop using drugs that have long been prohibited for use in the United States due to “human health concerns, particularly carcinogenicity and mutagenicity.” The drugs in question include carbadox, nitrofural, furazolidone, chlorpromazine (thorazine), stilbenes (e.g. diethylstilbestrol, DES), olaquindox, dimetridazole, ipronidazole, metronidazole, and ronidazole, and according to Food Animal Concerns Trust Director Steven Roach, they are “not needed for animal health” and most countries have adopted safer alternatives. “We urge the U.S. delegation to insist on a recommendation that other countries prohibit use of these drugs, as the U.S. itself does,” said Roach. See Consumerist, August 21, 2013.
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF’s) Bridging the Gap research program recently published a study in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine concluding that the food and beverage industry “still spends the bulk of its money to promote unhealthy products” to children and teens. Lisa Powell, et al., “Food Marketing Expenditures Aimed at Youth: Putting the Numbers in Context,” American Journal of Preventative Medicine, August 2013. Seeking to contextualize a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report that found food and beverage companies spent less on youth-focused marketing in 2009 than in 2006, the study suggests that the expenditure trends highlighted by FTC ultimately fail to account for changes in the marketing landscape that allegedly negate the overall decrease in spending. In particular, according to a concurrent issue brief, Rudd Center and Bridging the Gap researchers reported that “the vast majority of…
A former non-exempt Anheuser-Busch brewery worker in California has filed a putative class action against the company alleging that it violated the state labor code by failing to include the value of free or discounted beer—termed “incentive pay”—in employees’ regular pay rates and thus undercompensated them by calculating overtime pay on the basis of pay rates that were too low. Controulis v. Anheuser-Busch, LLC, No. BC518518 (Cal. Super. Ct., Los Angeles Cty., filed August 16, 2013). The plaintiff also claims that the company failed to timely provide a final paycheck when employees were discharged or quit. According to the complaint, the plaintiff was terminated during the year preceding the complaint’s filing while he was on a leave of absence. Seeking to certify several classes of California employees, the plaintiff alleges failure to pay overtime wages, wage statement violations, waiting time penalties, unfair competition (that is, by underpaying its employees, the…
A federal court in California has dismissed putative nationwide class claims against The Hain Celestial Group alleging that the company’s food and beverage product labels and website mislead consumers because they (i) list the ingredient “Evaporated Cane Juice” or “Organic Evaporated Cane Sugar Juice,” (ii) are falsely labeled “All Natural” or “Only Natural,” and (iii) falsely claim to have “No Trans Fat” or other nutrient content claims. Smedt v. The Hain Celestial Group, Inc., No. 12-3029 (N.D. Cal., San Jose Div., order entered August 16, 2013). The court dismissed the statutory warranty claims with prejudice on the grounds that the food products are consumables and not covered under the state and federal laws and because food and beverage labels “do not constitute express warranties against a product defect.” The court dismissed the fraud-related claims with leave to amend within 15 days, finding that the amended complaint failed to “unambiguously specify the…
