“There are no longer any viable reasons to maintain outdated nutrition labeling standards for sugar,” opines Jennifer Pomeranz, director of legal initiatives at Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, in this article urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to revise sugar labeling regulations to better inform and protect consumers. Citing recent developments such as recommendations by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the American Heart Association to limit sugar consumption, “new and robust” science suggesting high-sugar intake is detrimental to human health, and the Institute of Medicine’s call for front-of-packaging labeling for sugar, Pomeranz maintains that FDA’s reluctance to require manufacturers to disclose sugar and added sugar is based on old science and obsolete concerns. “The need for more information relevant to sugar on food labels is long overdue,” she writes. “The government can currently require more information pertinent to total sugar consistent with the public…
Oklahoma State University’s (OSU) Robert M. Kerr Food and Agriculture Products Center has reportedly signaled its intention to patent a new kind of steak after unveiling the product at the “Protein Innovation Summit” held April 16-17, 2012, in Chicago, Illinois. According to media sources, OSU researchers have dubbed the cut of beef a “Vegas Strip Steak” and said it derives from a part of the animal previously used for hamburgers. “It’s an un-obvious chunk of meat that has just been sitting there—a little diamond surrounded by a bunch of coal. The patent actually claims the kind of knife strokes that you make in order to create this cut of meat,” explained OSU Associate Vice President for Technology Development Steve Price in a May 23, 2012, NPR interview. “You take this muscle, you make cuts here, here and here and you end up with this Vegas Strip Steak.” Because it would be…
The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), Public Citizen and Corporate Accountability International are reportedly urging the PBS network to “end a four-year marketing agreement between the popular children’s show ‘Martha Speaks’ and the fast food chain Chick-fil-A.” The marketing agreement includes 15-second ads for the restaurant before and after the show and in-store giveaways at more than 1,600 Chick-fil-A locations. According to the watchdog groups, “an astounding 56 million Chick-fil-A Kids’ Meals—which contain as much as 670 calories and 29 grams of fat—were distributed in Martha Speaks co-branded bags” in 2011. The groups also called for PBS member station WGBH, which produces “Martha Speaks,” to withdraw the ads from nomination for a children’s marketing award. “PBS deserves lots of awards, but using a beloved character to lure kids to a fast food restaurant is nothing to celebrate,” said CCFC’s Susan Linn. See CCFC Press Release, May 23, 2012.
Chipotle Mexican Grill has filed a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) advising that the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia “is conducting an investigation into possible criminal securities law violations relating to our employee work authorization verification compliance and related disclosures and statements.” The probe follows investigations into the company’s compliance with immigration laws by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm and public disclosure requirements by SEC. According to news sources, the company, which has indicated its intent to fully cooperate with the investigations, was forced to fire some 450 employees in 2011, after it learned that illegal immigrants had been hired to work in its Minnesota restaurants. Since then, the company has reportedly been using Homeland Security’s E-Verify system to confirm employee eligibility. See Reuters and Law360, May 18, 2012; Bloomberg, May 21, 2012,
The European Union (EU) Court of Justice has affirmed a General Court ruling that confectioner Lindt & Sprüngli, AG cannot register certain three-dimensional shapes, their colored wrappings or ribbons as European Community trademarks. Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprüngli AG v. Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Mkt. (Trademarks and Designs), Case No. C-98/11 P (E.C.J., decided May 24, 2012). Additional details about the case appear in Issue 376 of this Update. The mark was sought for the shape of a sitting rabbit with a red ribbon. According to the court, the shape was “typical” for chocolate rabbits and was thus “devoid of any distinctive character.” The court also found that the gold-foil wrapping and small bells and bows embellishments were “common elements in the case of chocolate animals.” The court further ordered the chocolatier to pay the costs of the appeal.
A coalition of advocacy organizations has reportedly agreed to dismiss as moot its lawsuit seeking an order requiring the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to respond to its 2006 petition asking the agency to regulate products containing nanomaterials. Information about the lawsuit appears in Issue 422 of this Update. The organizations, including Food and Water Watch and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, apparently indicated that while the agency has rejected some of their key proposals, FDA has formally responded to the petition. FDA has said that it will not regulate nanomaterials as new substances, but will evaluate them based on their effects on foods, drugs and cosmetics. See Capital Press, May 18, 2012.
The California Agricultural Labor Relations Board has filed a petition for injunctive relief against a Ventura County strawberry farming operation alleging unfair labor practices and seeking to stop the respondent from interfering with employees’ free exercise of rights under the labor code. State v. Montalvo Farms, LLC, No. 56-2012-00416985 (Cal. Super. Ct., Ventura Cty., filed May 9, 2012). According to the petition, the farm hires Mixteco farmworkers, most of whom speak neither English nor Spanish. Due to language constraints, these workers allegedly endure “worse working conditions than other agricultural workers, including pervasive undercounting of their strawberry boxes picked, supervisors who charge for rides to work, injuries on the job that are ignored, and outright discrimination due to their inability to speak Spanish fluently.” One Mixteco worker, who is fluent in Mixteco and Spanish, apparently worked at the farm for several years and became a spokesperson for the Mixteco workers. He…
A federal court in Pennsylvania has denied the motion for summary judgment filed by a Burger King franchisee sued for violating the civil rights of an African-American truck driver who alleged that restaurant employees spit in his sandwich before serving it. Goodwin v. Fast Food Enters. #3, LLP, No. 10-23 (W.D. Pa., decided May 16, 2012). This motion was based on the assertion that the plaintiff would be unable to establish that the defendant is liable for the “allegedly discriminatory actions of the employees” and a request to strike the plaintiff’s request for punitive damages. In a previous motion, also decided against the franchisee, the court determined that “there were triable issues of material fact concerning whether Goodwin’s sandwich had been spat into and whether the incident, if it occurred, was racially motivated.” According to the court, the doctrine of respondeat superior, may not, as argued by the defendant, apply in…
A federal court in California has dismissed with prejudice a putative class action filed in March 2012 against the companies that make a line of SoBe® beverages known as 0 Calories Lifewater®. Hairston v. S. Beach Beverage Co., Inc., No. 12-1429 (C.D. Cal., decided May 18, 2012). Further details about the case appear in Issue 429 of this Update. According to the court, state-law consumer-fraud claims based on the use of fruit names to describe the different Lifewater flavors and the use of common vitamin names instead of the vitamins’ chemical names are preempted by federal law which allows both types of labeling. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations, said the court, “explicitly permit manufacturers ‘to use the name and images of a fruit on a product’s packaging to describe the characterizing flavor of the product even where the product does not contain any of that fruit, or contains no fruit…
A federal court in Kentucky has determined that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is not entitled to information about the medical examinations of Nestlé Prepared Foods employees in relation to a claim by one former employee that he was fired due to “genetic information” discrimination. EEOC v. Nestlé Prepared Foods, No. 11-359 (E.D. Ky., decided May 23, 2012). So ruling, the court rejected in part a magistrate judge’s recommended disposition and denied EEOC’s motion for enforcement of a subpoena. According to the court, the information sought was irrelevant because there was no evidence that any other employee had alleged violations of the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA), 42 U.S.C. § 2000 0ff-1. While acknowledging that EEOC ordinarily “has broad access to evidence that is relevant to a charge being investigated,” the court was “not persuaded that it has free reign to conduct a broad, company-wide investigation based upon a single…
