The Department of Health and Human Services’ National Toxicology Program (NTP) has announced a January 11-13, 2011, workshop in Raleigh, North Carolina, to address how environmental chemicals may be contributing to the “epidemics of diabetes and obesity.” Workshop participants will (i) “evaluate strengths/weaknesses, consistency, and biological plausibility of findings reported in humans and experimental animals for certain environmental chemicals including arsenic, cadmium, chlorinated organohalogens, other organohalogens, bisphenol A, phthalates, and organotins”; (ii) “identify the most useful and relevant endpoints in experimental animals and in vitro models”; (iii) “identify relevant pathways and biological targets for assays for the Toxicology Testing in the 21st Century (‘Tox21’) high throughput screening initiative”; and (iv) “identify data gaps and areas for future evaluation/research.” See Federal Register, December 10, 2010.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has announced a January 28, 2011, forum to discuss the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) role in ensuring safe food. IOM’s Committee on Review of FDA will meet in Washington, D.C., with agency representatives to review the recommendations put forth in its June 2010 report, Enhancing Food Safety, which described FDA as “reactive, lacking a systematic focus on prevention.” The findings specifically asked FDA to adopt a “risk-based model” that involves increased coordination “with state and other federal agencies that share responsibility for protecting the nation’s food supply.” It also called on Congress to amend the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act “to explicitly provide the authority FDA needs to fulfill its food safety mission.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced an initiative to address “the prevalence of animal drug products marketed in the United States without approval or other legal marketing status.” Unapproved animal drugs on the market include injectable vitamins, shampoos, liniments, and electrolyte and glucose solutions. FDA is concerned that the safety and effectiveness of these drugs has not been demonstrated and is open “to using both the agency’s existing authority and new approaches to make more drugs legally available to veterinarians, animal producers and pet owners,” according to a December 20, 2010, press release. The agency requests comments by February 18, 2011, on ways to increase the availability of legally marketed animal drugs and has launched a web page detailing problems involving the use of unapproved products. See Federal Register, FDA Press Release, December 20, 2010.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reopened the comment period on revisions proposed in 1997 to its rule regarding substances generally recognized as safe (GRAS). Written or electronic comments are requested by March 28, 2011. The proposed revisions would “replace the voluntary GRAS affirmation petition process . . . with a voluntary notification procedure whereby any person may notify us of a determination that a particular use of a substance in human food . . . or in food for animals . . . is GRAS.” The proposal would also “clarify the criteria . . . whereby the use of a substance is not subject to the premarket approval requirements of the [Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act] because it is GRAS.” The Federal Register notice refers to several developments since 1997, including the use of nanotechnology in foods, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on FDA oversight of GRAS…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has issued a final rule requiring mandatory nutrition labeling on 40 major cuts of single-ingredient, raw meat and poultry products. The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 requires nutrition facts labels on most foods regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, but USDA-regulated meat and poultry has been exempt, allowing producers to supply the information on a voluntary basis. Effective January 1, 2012, the rule calls for packages of ground or chopped meat and poultry to feature nutrition fact panels on their labels, and whole, raw cuts of meat and poultry to either include facts panels on their package labels or have them available for consumers at the point-of-purchase. Designed to educate consumers about nutrition and diets, the rule requires the labels to supply the number of calories and the grams of total fat and saturated fat. “Additionally, any product that lists a…
President Barack Obama (D) signed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (H.R. 2751) into law on January 4, 2011, ending a complicated legislative journey that began with House approval in 2009. In essence, the law gives the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to order food product recalls, calls for more frequent facility inspections, enhances FDA’s ability to oversee food imports, requires food facilities to have written safety plans, establishes science-based standards for the safe production and harvesting of produce, and exempts small farms that sell directly to local consumers from a number of provisions. As Commissioner of Food and Drugs Margaret Hamburg has noted, while some of the changes take effect immediately, others depend on budgeting. According to her blog post, “The funding we get each year, which affects our staffing and our vital and far-ranging operations, will also affect how this legislation is implemented . . .…
A recent study has proposed a model linking the butter flavoring known as diacetyl to bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome, a lung disease diagnosed in microwave popcorn plant workers. James Mathews, et al., “Reaction of the Butter Flavorant Diacetyl (2,3-Butanedione) with N-α Acetylarginine: A Model for Epitope Formation with Pulmonary Proteins in the Etiology of Obliterative Bronchiolitis,” Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, November 2010. Researchers with RTI International and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences evidently analyzed the effects of diacetyl on N-R-acetylarginine ,in an effort to understand how the chemical reacts with cell membranes containing the amino acid arginine. According to the study abstract, “Because diacetyl modifies arginine residues, an immunological basis for its toxicity is under investigation.” “Currently, the mechanism(s) of diacetyl toxicity (are) unknown; however, the results of this study suggest that injury to the airway epithelium may involve alteration of cellular proteins containing arginine, including those on…
Food & Water Watch (FWW) has published a report critical of seafood eco-labels that certify products as “environmentally friendly” or “sustainably produced.” Titled De-Coding Seafood Eco-Labels: Why We Need Public Standards, the report examines several seafood certification programs created “in response to a range of controversial issues related to the production and consumption of fish.” According to FWW, these privately operated programs have capitalized on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s failure to implement an “organic” seafood label. Moreover, FWW argues, “some of these certification programs have additional interests beyond providing consumer guidance. Whether it’s an interest in establishing a relationship with a fishery in order to work toward improvement, or getting more eco-certified product on the market, these other interests compete with label neutrality.” The FWW report finds that the six labeling programs under review “demonstrate inadequacies with regard to some or all of the following: environmental standards, social responsibility and…
Authored by the co-founders of the Zagat Survey, this New York Times op-ed examines a recent spate of class action lawsuits arguing that many prominent restaurateurs, including Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali, “are routinely cheating their workers by confiscating waiters’ and busboys’ tips to share with managers and other ineligible employees.” Tim and Nina Zagat, however, question whether these culinary giants would continue to intentionally cheat employees while facing costly lawsuits and “draconian penalties” under the state’s new Wage Theft Protection Act. “The biggest worry for restaurateurs, though, is that one error—for example, just one ineligible employee found sharing in tips—could cost a restaurant its ‘tip credit,’ which permits restaurants to pay their waiters less than the full minimum wage because the state assumes that they get $2.60 an hour in tips,” write the Zagats. “If a restaurant’s tip credit is yanked, it has to repay that much for every…
A California egg producer has filed a lawsuit against the state and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) seeking a declaration that the improvements it has already made to its facilities, referred to as “the enriched colony housing system,” comply with the requirements of Proposition 2 (Prop. 2). JS West Milling Co., Inc. v. California, No. 10-04225 (Cal. Super. Ct., Fresno Cty., filed December 8, 2010). Prop. 2, approved in 2008, prohibits agricultural operations from confining farm animals, for all or the majority of any day, in a way that prevents the animal from “lying down, standing up, and fully extending his or her limbs; and turning around freely.” The plaintiff emphasizes that it does not seek to challenge the voter-approved proposition. Rather, because its requirements are “vague, and there is substantial disagreement among the agricultural community, animal rights groups, and other interested parties as to what they…
