The U.S. Supreme Court has denied the request to review a Washington appeals court dismissal of claims filed by a man who alleged that contaminated pet food caused his cat’s death. Earl v. Menu Foods Income Fund, Inc., No. 12-1083 (U.S., cert. denied May 13, 2013). According to a news source, the defendant had recalled some of its pet foods due to melamine contamination, but the plaintiff apparently failed to produce admissible evidence that those foods were implicated in his pet’s death. In its opposition to the plaintiff’s petition to the Court, Menu Foods reportedly stated that no federal question was presented. Rather, at issue was whether state law on the preservation and destruction of evidence had been properly applied. See Bloomberg BNA Product Safety & Liability Reporter, May 13, 2013.
The Vermont House of Representatives has passed a bill (H. 112) that would require labeling of foods with genetically modified (GM) ingredients. According to the legislative findings recited in the proposal, “There is a lack of consensus regarding the validity of the research and science surrounding the safety of genetically engineered foods, as indicated by the fact that there are peer-reviewed studies published in international scientific literature showing negative, neutral, and positive health results.” The findings also suggest that GM crops pose environmental hazards. The measure, which requires Senate approval, would define what constitutes genetic engineering, prohibit any GM food from bearing a “natural” label and require placement of the term “‘genetically engineered’ immediately preceding any common name or primary product descriptor of a food.” If enacted, the proposal would take effect on the first of two dates: “18 months after two other states enact legislation with requirements substantially comparable to…
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has lowered the tolerable daily intake (TDI) of phenol—a chemical used to make coatings, adhesives and inks in food contact materials—from 1.5 to 0.5 mg/kg bw/day. The action follows a request from the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment asking EFSA’s Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes, Flavourings and Processing Aids (CEF) to reassess the TDI because the original value was “within the same dose range which was reported to be associated with some haematotoxic and immunotoxic effects in an oral study on phenol.” In its scientific opinion on the toxicological evaluation of phenol, EFSA stated that the chemical was last evaluated in 1984. The derived TDI does not consider the hazard of possible oxidation products such as quinones and hydroquinones, which CEF suggested should be evaluated separately. The panel also concluded that the “European Commission should consider other routes of exposure, including flavorings,…
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) have issued their third joint report “on antimicrobial resistance in zoonotic bacteria affecting humans, animals and foods.” Based on data collected by member states in 2011, the report notes the “continued presence of resistance to a range of antimicrobials in Salmonella and Campylobacter, the main bacteria causing food-borne infections in the European Union (EU),” although co-resistance to more than one critically important antimicrobial remains low overall. According to the findings, “a high proportion of Campylobacter bacteria … was resistant to the critically important antimicrobial ciprofloxacin” in addition to other commonly used antimicrobials. The data also suggested that Salmonella resistance “to at least three different antimicrobial classes[] was high overall in the EU,” with a large proportion of the bacteria in humans and animals already resistant to commonly used antimicrobials and, in the case of poultry, to ciprofloxacin. “If…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a final rule that amends the regulations for “irradiation of animal feed and pet food to provide for the safe use of electron beam and x-ray sources for irradiation of poultry feed and poultry feed ingredients.” The revised rule states that ionizing radiation is limited to (i) “gamma rays from sealed units of cobalt-60 or cesium-137”; (ii) “electrons generated from machine sources at energy levels not to exceed 10 million electron volts”; (iii) “x-rays generated from machine sources at energies not to exceed 5 million electron volts”; and (iv) “x-rays generated from machine sources using tantalum or gold as the target material and using energies not to exceed 7.5 (MeV).” See Federal Register, May 10, 2013.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has issued a final rule amending the standards for cognac and pisco, a type of brandy manufactured in Peru and Chile. According to TTB, the final rule honors an international agreement with Peru and Chile recognizing pisco as a distinctive product of those countries in exchange for the recognition of Bourbon Whiskey and Tennessee Whiskey as distinctive products of the United States. The final rule clarifies that pisco is “a type of brandy that must be manufactured in accordance with the laws and regulations of either Peru or Chile” and removes “Pisco brandy” from the list of examples of geographic designations in the distilled spirits standard of identity. Under the new rules, qualifying products can now bear the name “Pisco” or any of its equivalents—“Pisco Perú,” “Pisco Chileno” or “Chilean Pisco” without needing to add the term “brandy”…
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has issued guidance to industry on the “Use of Social Media in the Advertising of Alcohol Beverages.” According to the May 13, 2013, circular, TTB considers that the advertising provisions of the Federal Alcohol Administration Act (FAA Act) apply to all advertisements “including social media.” The guidance aims to provide “a basis for voluntary compliance with the FAA Act and the TTB advertising regulations with regard to social media, both in terms of required mandatory statements and prohibited practices or statements.” TTB defines social media outlets as social network services, video sharing sites, blogs, microblogs, forums or comment sections on websites, apps for mobile devices, and links and quick response codes. Applicable to advertisements for wine, distilled spirits and malt beverages, the requirements include posting a responsible advertiser name and address and avoiding prohibited statements, including false health…
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reportedly sent letters to more than 90 businesses in an effort to educate them about updates to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) that take effect July 1, 2013. According to a May 15, 2013, FTC press release, the agency sent separate letters to both domestic and foreign companies “that may be collecting images or sounds of children” as well as those “that may be collecting persistent identifiers from children.” The letters explain to recipients that under the new rules, personal information now includes (i) “a photograph or video with a child’s image, or an audio file that has a child’s voice,” and (ii) “persistent identifiers, such as cookies, IP addresses and mobile device IDs, that can recognize users over time and across different websites or online services.” “Companies whose apps collect, store or transmit this information, as well as other personal information…
A recent study has reportedly concluded that while fewer food advertisements overall are shown during U.S. Spanish-language children’s TV programs than during similar English-language programs, “the nutritional quality of food products on Spanish-language channels was substantially poorer than on English channels.” Dale Kunkel, et al., “Food Marketing to Children on U.S. Spanish-Language Television,” Journal of Health Communications, May 2013. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the study analyzed 158 Spanish language children’s programs “for [their] advertising content and compared them with an equivalent sample of English-language advertising.” Researchers also evaluated the nutritional quality of the advertised products using a rating system developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) that divides foods into three categories: Go (foods that are “rich in nutrients and relatively low in calories”), Slow (foods that are “higher in fat, added sugar and calories than Go foods”) and Whoa (foods that are…
Chinese scientists investigating the spread of airborne influenzas have reportedly combined genetic material from avian (H5N1) and swine (H1N1) flu strains to create more than 100 different hybrid viruses, five of which proved contagious among mammals. Ying Zhang, et al., “H5N1 Hybrid Viruses Bearing 2009/H1N1 Virus Genes Transmit in Guinea Pigs by Respiratory Droplet,” Science, May 2013. According to the study, researchers engineered 127 reassortant viruses using “a duck isolate of H5N1, specifically retaining its hemagglutinin (HA) gene throughout, and a highly transmissible, humaninfective H1N1 virus,” then tested the reassortants in mice “as a correlate for virulence in humans” and in guinea pigs, “which have both avian and mammalian types of airway receptor,” as a test of transmissibility. The results evidently showed that in addition to H5 HA gene mutations, which “improve affinity for human-like airway receptors,” specific H1N1 genes enhanced mammal-to-mammal transmission, including “the polymerase PA gene and nonstructural protein…
