California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has proposed adding two food and beverage flavorings, as well as a fungicide and an herbicide contaminant to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Prop. 65).Comments are requested by April 10, 2012. The chemicals are beta-Myrcene and Pulegone, which are components of certain essential oils used to flavor foods and beverages and also used as a fragrance in cosmetics, soaps, detergents, and herbal medicines, and Isopyrazam, a fungicide used in Central and South America on bananas, and 3,3’,4,4’-Tetrachloroazo-benzene, a contaminant and degradation product of certain herbicides. OEHHA has proposed the action under the authoritative bodies listing mechanism, citing the National Toxicology Program and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as institutions that have found the chemicals to be carcinogens or “likely to be carcinogenic.”
The U.S Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have announced a February 23, 2012, public meeting in College Park, Maryland, to provide information and receive public comments on draft U.S. positions to be discussed at the 6th Session of the Codex Committee on Contaminants in Food (CCCF) on March 26-30 in Maastricht, The Netherlands. CCCF is responsible for establishing or endorsing maximum levels “for contaminants and naturally occurring toxicants in food and feed.” Agenda items will include draft maximum levels for melamine in liquid infant formula, arsenic in rice, and deoxynivalenol and its acetylated derivatives in cereals and cereal-based products. See Federal Register, February 3, 2012.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has dedicated its February 2012 issue of Vital Signs to reducing population salt intake, claiming that nine out of 10 Americans ages 2 years or older consume more sodium than recommended for a healthy diet. Noting that too much dietary sodium can result in high blood pressure leading to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke, CDC reports that the average adult consumes approximately 3,300 milligrams daily, some 1,000 mg more than the recommended amount for adults. According to Vital Signs, approximately 65 percent of dietary sodium comes from processed foods bought in retail stores and approximately 25 percent from foods prepared in restaurants. More than 40 percent is reportedly linked to “breads and rolls, cold cuts and cured meats such as deli or packaged ham or turkey, pizza, fresh and processed poultry, soups, sandwiches such as cheeseburgers, cheese, pasta dishes…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program (NOP) has issued a proposed rule that would regulate the use of synthetic methionine in organic poultry production after a current interim final rule expires on October 1, 2012. According to a February 6, 2012, Federal Register notice, the rule would amend the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (National List) to permit the following maximum levels of synthetic methionine per ton of feed: (i) two pounds for laying and broiler chickens; and (ii) three pounds for turkey and all other poultry. NOP has requested public comments on the proposed rule by April 6. The National List currently classifies methionine “as an essential amino acid because it cannot be biologically produced by poultry and is necessary to maintain viability.” The substance occurs naturally in feed sources that include blood meal, fish meal, crab meal, corn gluten meal, alfalfa meal, and sunflower…
Three consumer advocacy organizations have filed a petition with the Office of Food Additive Safety of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition requesting that ABT Technologies’ application to approve genetically engineered (GE) salmon be reviewed under the food additive provisions of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The company’s new animal drug application for the GE salmon is currently pending before the agency’s Center for Veterinary Medicine. According to Food & Water Watch, Consumers Union and the Center for Food Safety, the company’s GE process “significantly alters the salmon’s composition . . . in a way that is reasonably expected to alter its nutritive value or concentration of constituents, and the new substance raises safety concerns. Under the Agency’s regulations and guidelines, such a substance must be treated as a food additive and the Agency must make a closer inquiry into the safety…
U.S. Representative Scott DesJarlais (D-Tenn.) has introduced a bill (H.R. 3848) that would prohibit federal money from being used in any advertising campaign “against the use of a food or beverage that is lawfully marketed under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.” DesJarlais told a news source that the legislation, titled the “Protecting Foods and Beverages from Government Attack Act of 2012,” responds to New York City’s recent anti-obesity ad campaign featuring a poster of a diabetic man with an amputated leg with the tagline, “Cut Your Portions, Cut Your Risk.” DesJarlais claims the campaign encouraging subway riders to reduce their portions of food and sugary drinks was funded with federal stimulus money targeted for anti-obesity efforts. “Our top priority should be restarting the economy and creating jobs—not funding scare campaigns against perfectly safe and legal products,” he said in a press release. “At a time when our nation faces…
U.S. Representatives Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) have proposed legislation (H.R. 3984) that would require the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to establish standards for arsenic and lead in fruit juices within two years. Titled the “Arsenic Prevention and Protection from Lead Exposure in Juice Act of 2012,” or the “APPLE Juice Act of 2012,” the proposal is designed to “protect children from harmful health effects of significant juice consumption,” the lawmakers said in a joint press release. Calling for lead and arsenic to be as strictly regulated in juice as they are in bottled water, the lawmakers said the bill came in response to a Consumer Reports investigation revealing “alarmingly high levels” of the toxins in apple and grape juice in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. “We must ensure that the juices our children drink are safe, particularly when 70 percent of the apple juice…
Anti-sugar crusader Robert Lustig has joined University of California, San Francisco, (UCSF) colleagues Laura Schmidt and Claire Brindis to co-author commentary in the February 2, 2012, edition of Nature that advocates regulating fructose like alcohol and tobacco. A specialist in neuroendocrinology at the UCSF School of Medicine, Lustig has garnered attention in national venues such as The New York Times for comparing sugar to a poison and linking it to metabolic dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, liver cancer, and other noncommunicable diseases. Details about his previous work appear in Issue 391 of this Update. Titled “The Toxic Truth About Sugar,” the latest article in Lustig’s arsenal maintains that because people in the developed world consume “an average of more than 500 calories per day from added sugar alone,” fructose now meets the four criteria used by public health advocates to justify regulation; that is, “unavoidability (or pervasiveness throughout society), toxicity, potential for…
This article considers how those marketing honey in the European Union (EU) may proceed after the European Court of Justice in September 2011 determined that honey with trace amounts of pollen from genetically modified (GM) corn must undergo a full safety authorization before it can be sold to consumers. Highly critical of the court’s opinion, the author suggests that because it is based on a faulty factual premise involving how honey is produced and harvested, other courts would not necessarily be bound by its interpretation of Regulation (EC) No. 1829/2003, because a proper factual background would present a different case. He calls for amendments to the relevant regulations that would exempt honey from their requirements or establish an upper limit for pollen from GM crops in honey. The author also suggests that honey will be subject to authorization and labeling requirements only if GM-pollen is present and detected. But he…
A New York resident has reportedly filed a putative class action in federal court, alleging that Frito-Lay misleads consumers by promoting its snack products as “all natural” when they actually contain corn and oils made from genetically engineered (GE) plants. Shake v. Frito-Lay N. Am., Inc., No. 12-408 (E.D.N.Y., filed January 30, 2012). Similar litigation was filed in December 2011 in California. Details about that case appear in Issue 421 of this Update. According to a news source, plaintiff Chris Shake alleges that he paid an additional 10 cents per ounce of Tostitos® and SunChips® over other comparable products and would not have done so had he known that the defendant’s products are not made with “all-natural ingredients.” A company spokesperson was quoted as saying that the product labeling “complies with all regulatory requirements.” Shake reportedly alleges damages in excess of $5 million. See Reuters, January 30, 2012.
