A Florida-based import-export company has filed for Chapter 7 protection in bankruptcy court, listing more than $204 million in liabilities from litigation over its role in the import from China of powdered milk contaminated with melamine. In re Exim Brickell, LLC, No. 13-28502 (U.S. Bankruptcy Ct., S.D. Fla., filed August 3, 2013). Exim Brickell, LLC declared $300 in office furniture as its only asset. According to a news source, the 2008 tainted Chinese milk scandal, which affected hundreds of thousands of children in that country and killed six, resulted n verdicts and legal fees against the company as a result of litigation involving a Venezuelan company that recently won an appeal in their breach of contract dispute. See Law360, August 7, 2013. In a related development, a new milk contamination scandal has developed in China over whey protein concentrate potentially contaminated with the C. botulinum bacterium. The dairy farm near…
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) has denied transfer to a multidistrict litigation (MDL) court of consumer-fraud lawsuits involving Capatriti brand “100% Pure Olive Oil” made by Kangadis Food Inc. d/b/a The Gourmet Factory and numerous snack, cereal, protein bar, and frozen entrée products made by the Kashi Co. In re Capatriti Brand Olive Oil Mktg. & Sales Practices Litig., MDL No. 2469; In re Kashi Co. Mktg. & Sales Practices Litig., MDL No. 2456 (J.P.M.L., decided August 6, 2013). According to the court, centralization is not appropriate in the olive oil suit because the Southern District of New York action has made “significant progress” and the number of actions pending in adjacent districts is small with a “correspondingly limited number of involved counsel and courts.” Because the plaintiff in a New Jersey action has considered voluntarily transferring his action to New York, the JPML found that alternatives to centralization…
The U.K. Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has ruled that pasta manufacturer NAH Foods, Ltd. cannot use a magazine ad for its “Slim Pasta” that features the heading “Zero Calorie Pasta?” and the subheading “UK & Ireland’s No.1 Best Selling Zero Calorie Pasta, Noodles & Rice” because tests of the product revealed that it actually contains 7.7 calories per 100 grams. In its defense, the company pointed out that the advertisement’s heading, “zero calorie pasta?”, contained a question mark and argued that it had not claimed “zero calorie pasta,” but ASA, while noting the question mark, decided that “consumers would infer that the advertiser was selling zero calorie pasta.” According to European regulation, a food can claim to be energy-free if it contains no more than 4 calories per 100 ml, and to make a low-energy claim, a food must contain no more 40 calories per 100 g for solid foods,…
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued guidance principles for conducting two-year whole food studies “to assess the risk of cancer and/or toxicity from the long-term consumption of such foods by humans.” Acting at the behest of the European Commission, EFSA relied on testing guidance (TG) 453 from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in addition to considering the views of member state experts consulted through the Scientific Network for the Risk Assessment of GMOs. The agency has cautioned, however, that testing individual chemicals in animal models “may result in adverse effects caused by dietary imbalance rather than any potential toxicity of the whole food itself,” urging researchers to carefully design studies to avoid this outcome and to use a larger number of animals when conducting whole food studies. “[I]t is essential that scientists implementing its guiding principles should define clear and specific objectives before starting a two-year…
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has proposed adequate intake (AI) levels for fluoride and molybdenum as part of its effort to provide dietary reference values (DRVs) for micronutrients, including vitamin C, folate, iron, zinc, calcium, and iodine. Finalized by EFSA’s Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA Panel) after a public consultation, the proposed AI for fluoride is 0.05 mg/kg body weight per day “for children aged 7 months to 17 years as well as adults, including pregnant and lactating women,” and the proposed AI for molybdenum is 65 micrograms per day for all adults and 10-65 micrograms per day for infants, children and adolescents. According to EFSA, the NDA Panel has already proposed DRVs for energy, macronutrients—protein, fats and carbohydrates—dietary fiber, and water. In turn, such DRVs are used “to establish reference values for nutrition labeling, for the assessment and planning of diets and for developing food-based…
According to a news source, restaurant chain T.G.I. Friday’s has agreed to make leave-policy changes affecting the employees working at its 272 company-owned facilities. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division apparently discovered violations of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act during an investigation of a company restaurant in Shreveport, Louisiana. The company had reportedly failed to reinstate an employee who took a legal leave under the law to the same or an equivalent position at the same pay and benefits, and had not allowed the employee to return immediately. The Labor Department determined that the restaurant owed the employee three weeks of lost wages. See The Kansas City Star, August 7, 2013.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a report indicating that obesity rates among preschoolers decreased in 19 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands between 2008 and 2011. Analyzing weight and height information from nearly 12 million children aged 2 to 4 years who participated in CDC’s Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System, the report showed that Florida, Georgia, Missouri, New Jersey, South Dakota, and the U.S. Virgin Islands saw at least a one percentage point decrease in obesity rates. According to CDC research, approximately one out of eight preschoolers in the United States is obese. “Although obesity remains epidemic, the tide has begun to turn for some kids in some states,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden. “While the changes are small, for the first time in a generation they are going in the right direction. Obesity in early childhood increases the risk of serious health problems for life.” One area…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released a July 2013 audit report examining how the Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS’s) National Organic Program (NOP) established the “access to pasture” rule for organic dairy cattle. Although OIG generally found that the new rules for organic milk production were “successfully implemented,” it nevertheless recommended that AMS clarify guidance for certifying agents “to ensure that all dairy producers are being treated consistently.” To this end, the audit noted that NOP (i) “had not clearly defined how producers should demarcate herds of organic milk-producing cattle, which meant that some certifying agents allowed producers to add cattle to organic herds,” and (ii) “needs to include organic feed brokers within the NOP-certification process to ensure that organic feed is not commingled or contaminated.” OIG also reported that certifying agents failed to take consistent enforcement actions “when their inspectors or reviewers identified…
Shook, Hardy & Bacon Class Actions & Complex Litigation Partners Andrew Carpenter, Scott Kaiser and Gregory Wu have launched the Missouri & Kansas Class Action Blog to provide up-to-date information about federal and state rulings in class action decisions arising in these states. New posts can be accessed by subscribing to the blog or through the authors’ LinkedIn pages.
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity has announced researcher Marlene Schwartz as its next director following the departure of Kelly Brownell for Duke University’s Sanford School. According to a July 19, 2013, press release, Schwartz previously served as co-director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders, where she studied “how children’s diets and health are influenced by home, school, and community environments,” as well as the impact of local, state and federal policies on nutrition. “Right now, we live in a world where it is difficult for parents to feed their children well, and people are discriminated against based on body size and weight. This must change,” said Schwartz, whose work received support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association, and Horizon Foun- dation. “At the Rudd Center, we are working to create a world that supports parents’ efforts to…
