According to news sources, a 25-year-old trade dispute pitting European Union (EU) laws prohibiting the import of beef treated with growth hormones and U.S. and Canadian trade sanctions imposing hundreds of millions of dollars of duties on EU exports of Roquefort cheese, truffles, chocolates, and other comestibles has been resolved. The U.S. and Canadian tariffs reportedly cost EU exporters more than US$250 million annually. In exchange for lifting a 100 percent ad valorem duty against EU products, the EU has agreed to increase quotas on imports of hormone-free beef to 48,200 metric tons under the deal. The agreement will allow the EU to maintain its ban on imports of hormone treated beef. Additional details about the dispute appear in Issues 103, 255, 262, 278, and 289 of this Update. See Law 360 and European Parliament News, March 14, 2012.
An Alabama resident has reportedly filed seven lawsuits in federal court against companies that make or sell orange juice products advertised as 100 percent pure or natural when they are actually “a product of industrial processing and laboratory-flavored juices.” Veal v. Tropicana Prods., Inc., No. 12-00804 (N.D. Ala., filed March 13, 2012). John Veal apparently alleges breach of contract and breach of warranty against each defendant on behalf of nationwide classes of consumers. According to a news source, he claims that he would not have purchased the products had he known the truth about their contents and would not have paid the higher prices charged for them. Among those sued were Simply Orange Juice Co., Tropicana Products Inc. and Winn Dixie Stores Inc. See Everything Alabama Blog, blog.al.com, March 15, 2012.
A federal court in California has refused to dismiss most of the putative class claims filed by a consumer against a company that made an alcoholic beverage containing high levels of caffeine, finding that a federal alcohol labeling law did not preempt state-law claims based on labeling or advertising and that the allegations of economic injury are sufficient to establish standing under California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL). Cuevas v. United Brands Co., Inc., No. 11-991 (S.D. Cal., order entered March 8, 2012). The defendant manufactured and sold JOOSE®, a flavored beverage with about 125 mg caffeine and 9.9 to 12 percent alcohol, from 2007 until it voluntarily removed the product from the market in December 2010 after receiving a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The plaintiff allegedly purchased the product on two occasions in April and August 2010 and subsequently filed suit alleging that the defendant violated…
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has added methanol to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause reproductive toxicity (Prop. 65). The listing, which is effective as of March 16, 2012, is based on the National Toxicology Program’s identification of the chemical as a reproductive toxicant. Because the chemical forms naturally in fruits and vegetables that contain pectin, OEHHA has determined that “methanol that is the by-product of naturally occurring pectin in the food is not considered an exposure under Section 25501. This applies to consumption of both unprepared and prepared fruits and vegetables.” This exception does not apply, however, where pectin is intentionally added “in the production or processing of food, or to nonfood exposures.” According to OEHHA, methanol is formed when “fruits and vegetables are physically prepared for consumption by methods that include, but are not limited to, slicing, chopping, pureeing and…
Polish officials have reportedly withdrawn from commerce more than 500,000 pounds of food possibly contaminated with industrial salt intended for de-icing roads in winter conditions. According to media sources, Poland’s Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested five individuals accused of selling road salt to food processors for use in dairy, fish, meat, and baked goods. The Chief Sanitary Inspectorate (GIS) has since identified the non-iodized salt, which contains “minimal” levels of dioxin and heavy metals, at 48 different locations, but has reportedly emphasized the overall low risk to human health. “It can be concluded with a very high probability that the amounts of these compounds per 100 g of the food products do not pose a health hazard,” one GIS investigator was quoted as saying. See Polskie Radio, February 27 and March 7, 2012; Warsaw Business Journal, March 5, 2012; EurActiv.com, March 7, 2012. Despite this finding and the precautionary…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released an analysis showing that disease outbreaks linked to imported foods apparently increased in 2009 and 2010. CDC experts reviewed data collected by the Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System from 2005 to 2010, finding that 39 outbreaks and 2,348 illnesses were tied to imported foods from 15 countries. According to CDC, 17 of the 39 outbreaks occurred in 2009 and 2010. Since 2005, imported fish was the most common source with 17 total outbreaks, followed by spices with six outbreaks, including five from fresh or dried peppers. Nearly 45 percent of the imported foods linked to outbreaks came from Asia. “It’s too early to say if the recent numbers represent a trend, but CDC officials are analyzing information from 2011 and will continue to monitor for these outbreaks in the future,” said CDC epidemiologist and lead author Hannah Gould. See CDC…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a warning letter to Staples, Inc. concerning inspections conducted at its California facility where food products are stored. FDA apparently discovered “serious violations of the Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) regulation for foods.” Among other matters, rodent excreta pellets were found on or near “at least 11 different food products, including various brands of candies, crackers, creamers, pistachios, ramen noodles, and bottled water.” The inspectors also apparently found dead rodents in traps throughout the facility and rodent gnawed holes on individual food packages. FDA acknowledged that the company voluntarily destroyed food products under the agency’s supervision in October 2011 and that the company repaired six roll-up doors at the facility. Still, because the company did not document its corrections with photographs or include a site map indicating the placement of rodent traps or pest control records with its response, it had not…
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a March 2012 report urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to adopt several measures to reduce Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) in cattle before they are slaughtered. According to GAO, USDA currently recognizes bacteriophages, probiotics, vaccines, and sodium chlorate as preslaughter interventions able to control STEC, but has received few applications for commercial products that use these methods. The report notes that even in the case of STEC vaccines, USDA’s requirements for approval are “unclear” and do not address “some of the unique challenges faced by manufacturers of animal health products.” GAO found that, unlike the Canadian Centre for Veterinary Biologics, USDA fails to specify when it requires laboratory or field demonstrations of vaccine efficacy, resulting in delayed application approval. There is also apparently a lack of available products designed to test for six STEC strains—other than STEC O157:H7—that are now considered…
Fifty-five members of Congress have sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in support of a legal petition demanding the labeling of genetically engineered (GE) foods. Signed by 10 senators and 45 representatives, the March 12, 2012, letter urges FDA “to protect a consumer’s right to know, the freedom to choose what we feed our families, and the integrity of our free and open markets.” Filed in October 2011 by the nonprofit Center for Food Safety, the petition reportedly has the support of more than 400 health and consumer agencies and has received nearly a million comments in favor of GE labeling, the lawmakers said. They assert that FDA’s 1992 policy statement allowing GE foods to be marketed without labeling is inadequate and outdated because it merely covers foods changed “materially” by taste, smell or other senses. “The use of novel food technologies like genetic engineering on…
A meta-analysis of recent scientific literature has questioned data alleging a link between synthetic food colors approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Joel Nigg, et al., “Meta-Analysis of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms, Restriction Diet, and Synthetic Food Color Additives,” Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, January 2012. Researchers evidently assessed 24 articles on synthetic food colors and 10 additional studies on dietary restriction, but ultimately found that several effects observed for food color additives were subject to publication bias or other flaws. In particular, the study authors noted that, while a restriction diet appears “to benefit some children with ADHD,” reports based on information from parents or teachers/observers were not wholly reliable or consistent even “after quality of measure was taken into account.” The analysis also revealed that “nearly all studies examined combinations of colors, with too little consistency…
