The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has determined that the owner of peach and pear orchards in Oregon violated the law by crediting its seasonal workers’ housing costs toward their minimum wage and by paying them the day after their last workday. Bobadilla-German v. Bear Creek Orchards, Inc., Nos. 10-35205, 10-35268 (9th Cir., decided April 12, 2011). The owner recruited several hundred seasonal farm workers in Arizona for the month-long harvest in 2004-2006 and offered them optional on-site housing and meals. The company charged $5-$7 a day for housing and deducted that amount from workers’ paychecks, crediting it toward their minimum wage. “In many instances, if housing costs were not credited toward the workers’ minimum wage, their wage would have been below the lawful minimum wage.” The workers generally received their final paychecks on the day following their last day of work. A class of workers sued the company, alleging…
A federal court in California has determined that some putative class claims can proceed against a company that allegedly makes false and misleading statements about its guacamole and spicy bean dip products. Henderson v. Gruma Corp., No. 10-04173 (C.D. Cal., decided April 11, 2011). The plaintiffs’ first amended complaint alleged five causes of action for violations of the state’s unfair competition and false advertising laws and the Consumer Legal Remedies Act. They claimed that the statements “0 g trans fat,” “with garden vegetables,” made in “the authentic tradition,” “0 g cholesterol,” and “all natural,” as to either or both products were false and misleading. The court first determined that the named plaintiffs, including a woman who recently brought and voluntarily dismissed similar claims against Hostess Brands, Inc., adequately alleged injury-in-fact to establish standing under Proposition 64. They alleged that they (i) “paid more for Mission Guacamole and Mission Bean Dip,…
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino (D) has issued an order that will require all city departments to take steps to stop “the sale, advertising, and promotion of sugary beverages on City-owned property.” The mayor is apparently concerned about setting an example in a community with high obesity rates that he attributes in part to the consumption of sweetened beverages. Under the executive order, only certain types of beverages will be sold in city cafeterias and vending machines and at city concession stands, or served during meetings, city-run programs and events catered with city funds. After a six-month grace period, city buildings and departments must phase out the sale of “red” beverages, that is, “those loaded with sugar, such as non-diet sodas, pre-sweetened ice teas, refrigerated coffee drinks, energy drinks, juice drinks with added sugar and sports drinks.” The promotion of such beverages will be prohibited. “Green” beverages can continue to be…
The Illinois House of Representatives has approved a bill (H.B. 1600) that would prohibit “food facilities” from selling food containing artificial trans fats. Effective January 1, 2013, the law would apply to any “entity that prepares, packages, serves, vends, or otherwise provides food for human consumption at the retail level,” including public and private school vending machines. Starting January 1, 2016, the bill would broaden to eliminate the use of artificial trans fats from cafeterias operated by state or local governments or by public or private schools. Most prepackaged foods would be exempt. If approved by the Illinois Senate and signed by the governor, the law would make Illinois and California the only states to enact trans fat bans. According to the bill’s sponsor, Representative La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago), Illinois has the 10th highest percent of obese and overweight children in the country. “Health problems cost our state so much…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has answered criticism of a July 21, 2000, final rule allowing “the safe use of ionizing radiation for the reduction of Salmonella in fresh shell eggs,” and denied requests for a hearing on the ground that the objections “do not raise issues of material fact or otherwise provide a basis for revoking or modifying . . . the regulation.” FDA evidently received 26 submissions contesting the final rule, which permits the irradiation of fresh shell eggs at doses not to exceed 3.0 kiloGray (kGy), but only one letter from Public Citizen raised specific issues within the rule’s scope. The April 13, 2011, Federal Register notice responds to Public Citizen’s claims that FDA misrepresented irradiation’s efficacy and its effect on vitamin A loss and egg yolk carotenoids; that FDA raised the dose allowance to 3.0 kGY without properly updating its analyses; and that FDA failed…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced an April 20, 2011, public meeting to discuss a Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) mandate to implement “comprehensive, science-based preventive controls across the food supply.” FSMA requires human, pet and animal food and feed facilities registered under section 415 of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 350d) “to take certain preventive actions, including to evaluate the hazards that could affect food manufactured, processed, packed, or held by the facility, and to identify and implement preventive controls to significantly minimize or prevent the occurrence of such hazards.” The meeting will help FDA establish these controls as well as industry guidance “for conducting a hazard analysis, documenting hazards, implementing preventive controls, and documenting their implementation.” In particular, the agency has requested information on “preventive controls used by facilities to identify and address hazards associated with specific types of food and specific processes.”…
In preparation for the 34th Session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Office of the Under Secretary of Food Safety has scheduled a June 16, 2011, meeting to provide information and receive public comments on draft U.S. positions that will be discussed at the Codex meeting. Written comments may be submitted to U.S. Codex Manager Karen Stuck at uscodex@fsis.usda.gov. The Codex session will be held July 4-9 in Geneva, and topics on the agenda include the consideration of draft standards at varying stages of development. Among other matters, Codex participants will consider standards and guidelines relating to risk analysis of foodborne antimicrobial resistance, nutrition labeling, the control of Campylobacter and Salmonella in chicken meat, food additives, maximum levels for melamine in food and for arsenic in rice, fish oils, and hygienic practice for mineral waters, fresh fruits and vegetables. The World Health Organization and the…
Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) have introduced a bill that would “establish a regulatory framework . . . under the aegis of the Federal Trade Commission [FTC]” to protect personal data online. According to an April 12, 2011, press release, the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights aims to protect consumers from “unscrupulous actors in the market” by creating “a baseline code of conduct for how personally identifiable information and information that can uniquely identify an individual or networked device are used, stored, and distributed.” To this end, the legislation would require collectors of information, such as online advertisers and vendors, to (i) “implement security measures to protect the information they collect and maintain”; (ii) “provide clear notice to individuals on the collection practices and the purpose for such collection”; and (iii) “collect only as much information as necessary to process or enforce a transaction or deliver a…
U.S. Representative Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) has introduced a bill (H.R. 1486) that would amend federal labeling laws concerning trans fat content in food. The Trans Fat Truth in Labeling Act of 2011 would “direct the Commissioner of Food and Drugs to revise the federal regulations applicable to the declaration of the trans fat content of a food on the label and in the labeling of the food when such content is less than 0.5 gram.” Effective 18 months after the date of enactment, the law would (i) “require that the nutrition information on the label or labeling on an applicable food contain an asterisk or another similar notation and a note to indicate that the food has a low trans fat content per serving” and (ii) “prohibit the label or labeling on an applicable food from indicating that trans fat content per serving is zero.” Applicable foods would be defined…
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has published a study that reportedly compares addictive eating behavior in both obese and lean women to substance dependence. Ashley Gearhardt, et al., “Neural Correlates of Food Addiction,” Archives of General Psychiatry, April 2011. According to an April 4, 2011, press release, researchers assessed the addictive eating behavior of 48 adolescent women ranging from lean to obese, then used “brain-imaging procedures” to examine (i) “how the brain responded to cues signaling the impending delivery of a highly palatable food (chocolate milkshake) versus cues signaling the impending delivery of a tasteless control solution,” and (ii) how the brain responded “during the actual intake of the chocolate milkshake versus the tasteless solution.” The results apparently suggested that both lean and obese subjects “with higher food addiction scores showed different brain activity patterns than those with lower food addiction scores,” exhibiting “greater activity in…
