Finding no clear state precedent, a federal court in Ohio has certified to the state supreme court a question arising in a case involving insurance coverage for Listeria-contaminated meats that led to the destruction of 1 million pounds of meat products in 2006. HoneyBaked Foods, Inc. v. Affiliated FM Ins. Co., No. 08-1686 (N.D. Ohio, order entered March 3, 2011). The question certified is as follows: In light of the Supreme Court of Ohio’s opinion in Anderson v. Highland House Co., 93 Ohio St. 3d 547 (2001), does the reasonable-expectations doctrine apply to a commercial general liability “all-risk” insurance policy, so that coverage, which otherwise would be excluded under the terms and conditions of the policy, is afforded, provided the trier of fact determines that the insured reasonably expected, when purchasing the policy, that the policy would cover the loss at issue. HoneyBaked Foods claimed a loss of approximately $8 million under…
Iowa Representative Annette Sweeney (R-Alden) has introduced a bill (H.F. 431) that would make it illegal to gain employment under false pretenses on farms or slaughterhouse processing facilities and then produce and distribute undercover videos. The Iowa Senate is reportedly expected to consider similar legislation. Defined in the bill as “animal facility interference,” shooting undercover videos at slaughterhouses would be considered anywhere from an aggravated misdemeanor up to a Class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and fined as much as $7,500. Similar penalties would apply to “animal facility fraud,” which would occur when a person is convicted of willfully obtaining “access to an animal facility by false pretenses for the purpose of committing an act not authorized by the owner of the animal facility” or “makes a false statement or representation as part of an application to be employed at the animal facility, if the…
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has issued a notice of its intent to list ethanol in alcoholic beverages and Chinese-style salted fish to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer (Prop. 65). Inclusion on the list requires that products containing these ingredients include label warnings. OEHHA is apparently basing its action on the inclusion of these substances in an International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) monograph. The agency is requesting comments by April 4, 2011. According to OEHHA, “[b]ecause these are ministerial listings, comments should be limited to the question whether IARC has identified the specific chemical or substance as a known or potential human or animal carcinogen. Under this listing mechanism, OEHHA cannot consider scientific arguments concerning the weight or quality of the evidence considered by IARC when identifying a specific chemical or substance and will not respond to such…
Mexico has reportedly approved its first pilot program to grow genetically modified (GM) corn. Noting that “it is necessary to advance the use of biotechnology to reduce imports and promote national production,” the Ministry of Agriculture approved the planting of GM yellow corn on approximately 2.5 acres in the northern state of Tamaulipas. Since 2009 when it began allowing GM corn on small experimental fields, the Mexican government has evidently received 121 requests for permits and allowed approximately 170 acres. According to the ministry, a pilot program is granted after an experimental field has been deemed safe by government inspectors. Although large commercial farms in northern Mexico have welcomed the GM corn to compete with U.S. imports, smaller farms in southern Mexico have expressed concern that the biotech crops could contaminate native red, blue and yellow corn varieties. See Reuters, March 8, 2011.
The European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA’s) Scientific Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources Added to Food (ANS) “has assessed the safety of a group of caramel colors authorized for use in food in the European Union,” concluding that all four classes “are neither genotoxic, nor carcinogenic and that there is no evidence to show that they have any adverse effects on human reproduction or for the developing child.” The ANS Panel evidently reevaluated the safety of Class I Plain Caramel or Caustic Caramel (E 150a), Class II Caustic Sulfite Caramel (E 150b), Class III Ammonia Caramel (E 150c) and Class IV Sulfite Ammonia Caramel (E 150d), setting a group acceptable daily intake (ADI) of 300 mg per kg body weight per day (mg/kg bw/day). It also set a more restrictive ADI of 100 mg/kg bw/day for caramel E150c. As ANS Panel Chair John Christian Larsen explained, “This means that…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced an April 26-29, 2011, public meeting of its National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), which will review recommendations pertaining to the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances. Under the Organic Foods Production Act, the list governs the synthetic substances that may be used, and the nonsynthetic substances that cannot be used, in organic production and handling operations. NOSB will consider exemptions and prohibitions for a variety of substances scheduled for sunset review, including ethanol, tetracycline, nickel, sodium nitrate, and newspaper and other recycled papers. It will also discuss animal handling, transit and slaughter recommendations, as well as other NOSB policy and procedure changes. The agency will accept pre-registration for public comments before April 10, 2011. See Federal Register, March 4, 2011.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) Food and Nutrition Board’s Committee on Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention has announced a public information-gathering workshop on measurement strategies to combat the nation’s obesity problem. The draft agenda for the March 23-24, 2011, event in Irvine, California, indicates that a panel discussion moderated by Northwestern University Professor Ellen Wartella will focus on “Marketing and Industry Measures and Evaluations.” A live video recording of the workshop, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, will be available on IOM’s Website and a taped version will reportedly be posted later. More information about the event is available here.
The National Institute for Animal Agriculture (NIAA) has scheduled its annual conference for April 11-14, 2011, in San Antonio, Texas. Titled “Consumers’ Stake in Today’s Food Production: Meeting Growing Demands with Integrity,” the event will include presentations on food supply and food safety issues. Shook, Hardy & Bacon Agribusiness & Food Safety Co-Chair Mark Anstoetter will speak during the conference about “Legal Challenges and Ramifications of Food Production Systems and Food Safety.” Shook, Hardy & Bacon is a conference co-sponsor.
U.K. researchers have reportedly linked sugar-sweetened beverages to a risk of high blood pressure, speculating that “one possible mechanism” for the association “is a resultant increase in the level of uric acid in the blood that may in turn lower the nitric oxide required to keep the blood vessels dilated.” Ian Brown, et al., “Sugar-Sweetened Beverage, Sugar Intake of Individuals, and Their Blood Pressure: International Study of Macro/Micronutrients and Blood Pressure,” Hypertension, February 2011. Researchers apparently analyzed food survey, urine and blood pressure data from 2,696 participants enrolled in INTERMAP, or the International Study of Macronutrients, Micronutrients and Blood Pressure. According to a February 28, 2011, Imperial College of London press release, the results purportedly showed that “for every extra can of sugary drink consumed per day, participants on average had a higher systolic blood pressure by 1.6 mmHg and a higher diastolic blood pressure by 0.8 mmHg.” The study…
A recent study of commercially available plastic products has reportedly claimed that “almost all” those sampled leached chemicals having reliably detectable estrogenic activity (EA). Chun Z. Yang, et al., “Most Plastic Products Release Estrogenic Chemicals: A Potential Health Problem That Can Be Solved,” Environmental Health Perspectives, March 2011. Researchers evidently used “a very sensitive, accurate, repeatable, roboticized MCF-7 cell proliferation assay to quantify the EA of chemicals leached into saline or ethanol extracts of many types of commercially available plastic materials, some exposed to common-use stresses,” such as microwaving or UV radiation. The results indicated that these products, “independent of the type of resin, product, or retail source,” emitted chemicals having EA despite being advertised as EA-free. In particular, products labeled free of bisphenol A (BPA) sometimes released chemicals “having more EA than BPA-containing products,” according to the study’s authors, who pointed to “existing, relatively-expensive monomers and additives that do not…
