One of the editors of this collection of essays about how to protect consumers when food and products freely cross international borders is Adam Finkel, a former senior enforcement official at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The book is “a direct outgrowth” of a 2009 Penn Law School conference that brought together leading scholars and analysts to discuss import safety. Among the authors are professors in law, economics, political science, criminology, engineering, psychology, risk assessment, and business. The overall tone of the work is to find innovative ways to ensure product safety with a combination of effective “public action and private inspections, public and private standard-setting, and a degree of dependence on consumers to take some responsibility for their own safety.” The essays are grouped under four headings: “Perspectives on the Problem,” “International Trade Institutions,” “Toward Smarter Regulation,” and “Leveraging the Private Sectors.” The authors discuss the massive scale…
Food activist, author and lawyer Michele Simon writes on AlterNet about how PepsiCo has placed a number of respected, and previously anti-industry, scientific experts on its payroll to the dismay of activists like Marion Nestle and others concerned about the purported influence of corporate resources on the public debate over health, obesity and nutrition. She reports that former “public health hero” Derek Yach established his reputation by working on the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control while working at the World Health Organization and later found himself “at odds with Big Food.” He worked for some time with Kelly Brownell’s team at the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, but then joined PepsiCo in 2007. Nestle reportedly described on her “Food Politics” blog a conversation she had with Yach after learning he was working for the food industry after which she “remained unconvinced that his role at…
Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. has filed a lawsuit against a competitor alleging that it has orchestrated “an unlawful and malicious campaign” against Ocean Spray designed to damage the company’s reputation, frustrate its relationships with customers and undermine its dealings with grower-owners and other cranberry growers in the industry. Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. v. Decas Cranberry Prods., Inc., No. 10-11288 (D. Mass., filed August 2, 2010). According to the complaint, the defendants have falsely accused Ocean Spray of creating “a significant oversupply of cranberries” in the industry and contributing to that surplus by reducing the amount of cranberries in its products. Ocean Spray details the various means the defendant has used to disseminate its “smear campaign,” including letters to growers, blog posts, and a letter to the U.S. Attorney General seeking an investigation of Ocean Spray. Ocean Spray also alleges that the defendant developed a “false and misleading social media campaign”…
Seeking to represent a statewide class of all those who purchased extra virgin olive oil during a four-year period, one of Bravo TV’s “Top Chefs” and individual consumers have sued companies that make and sell the product, alleging that it often does not meet international and U.S. standards. Martin v. Carapelli USA, LLC, No. BC442300 (Cal. Super. Ct., Los Angeles Cty., filed July 30, 2010). The complaint cites a June 2010 study conducted by University of California at Davis’s Olive Oil Center researchers who apparently concluded that samples of imported olive oil labeled as “extra virgin” often did not meet applicable standards. They allegedly determined that the failures could be attributed to (i) oxidation from poor handling, (ii) “adulteration with cheaper refined olive oil,” or (iii) oil made from inferior olives, processing flaws, and/or improper oil storage. According to the complaint, “For years, chefs and home cooks have shared anecdotal…
Lawyers for Sholom Rubashkin, who was recently sentenced to 27 years in prison for financial fraud discovered in connection with a kosher meatpacking plant in the aftermath of a 2008 raid to find illegal immigrants, have alleged trial-court improprieties in their request for a new trial. U.S. v. Rubashkin, No. 08-1324 (N.D. Iowa, filed August 5, 2010). According to Rubashkin’s motion, the federal district court occupied temporary space near the plant so that the 300-plus undocumented workers arrested in the raid could be processed the following day. This raised the issue of Judge Linda Reade’s prior involvement with prosecutors. “Indeed, Chief District Judge Linda Reade stated in September 2008 in a written opinion that she engaged in purportedly limited ‘logistical cooperation’ with law-enforcement authorities in order to provide attorneys and interpreters for the arrested aliens and to conduct their trials in Waterloo.” To the contrary, Rubashkin claims, eight months after…
A federal court in California has reportedly dismissed claims that ConAgra Foods, Inc. provided inadequate cooking instructions on its chicken pot pie products. Meaunrit v. ConAgra Foods, Inc., No. 09-02220 (N.D. Cal., decided July 20, 2010). More than 250 people purportedly got sick after eating the company’s pot pies in 2007 in a Salmonella outbreak that led to a nationwide recall. The named plaintiff in this putative class action apparently did not get sick, but claimed that the company put human health at risk by providing inadequate cooking instructions too difficult for the average consumer to understand. She also alleged that the company’s production facilities subjected consumers to food borne illnesses by failing to adequately prevent bacterial contamination of its products. According to the court, federal agencies pre-approved ConAgra’s product labeling and, “[b]ecause the pre-approval process includes a determination of whether the labeling is false and misleading, and the gravamen of…
A federal court in California has denied in part and granted in part the motion to dismiss filed by Smart Balance, Inc., which is defending a putative class action alleging that the company misled consumers by marketing its Nucoa margarine as cholesterol-free and healthy despite the artificial trans fat in the product. Yumul v. Smart Balance, Inc., No. 10-00927 (C.D. Cal., order entered July 30, 2010). The plaintiff alleges violations of the state’s unfair competition and false advertising laws and violation of the Consumer Legal Remedies Act. She seeks an injunction requiring that the misleading advertising practices cease, a corrective advertising campaign, restitution, and an injunction requiring the destruction of all misleading and deceptive materials and products. The defendant asserted that the factual allegations lacked sufficient specificity and also contended that the complaint be dismissed because it was based on conduct outside the applicable limitations period. Declining to consider some materials submitted…
With one judge dissenting, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has determined that federal law does not bar domestic almond producers from challenging a rule that requires them to pasteurize or chemically treat their product to prevent Salmonella outbreaks. Koretoff v. Vilsack, No. 09-5286 (D.C. Cir., decided August 3, 2010). While the court allowed those who grow almonds to continue pursuing their challenge to the 2007 rule, it dismissed the claims of companies that package and sell the almonds to consumers, finding that, as “handlers,” they must first exhaust their administrative remedies before turning to the courts to resolve their dispute. The U.S. Department of Agriculture secretary promulgated the challenged rule under the authority of the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937 (AMAA). California almond producers and retailers claim that the rule is arbitrary and capricious because it devastated the domestic raw almond market while leaving foreign producers, who are…
New York Governor David Paterson (D) has signed legislation (S. 3296-H/A. 6919-D) that prohibits the manufacture or sale of child care products such as baby bottles and sippy cups that contain bisphenol A (BPA) and are intended for children younger than age 3. The bill, which the Senate and Assembly passed in June 2010, is expected to take effect on December 1. Several other states, including Connecticut and Wisconsin, have enacted similar measures. “This law will ensure that a potentially harmful substance is no longer allowed in products used by our smallest and most vulnerable children,” Paterson said in a statement, which also claimed that “while BPA has not been conclusively proven to harm children or adults, a growing body of science indicates that infants and young children may be vulnerable to serious development problems as a result of exposure to BPA.” See Press Release of Governor David Paterson, July…
The Canadian Sodium Working Group (SWG) has released a report detailing a three-pronged strategy that aims to reduce the public’s salt consumption. After examining the issue for two years, the federally mandated group has established an interim sodium intake goal of a population average of 2,300 mg per day by 2016, with the ultimate goal of lowering “sodium intakes to a population mean whereby as many individuals as possible (greater than 95%) have a daily intake below the Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) of 2,300 mg per day.” To achieve these targets, the strategy contains six overarching and 27 specific recommendations focused on reducing sodium levels in processed food products and foods sold in restaurant and food service establishments; educating consumers, industry, health professionals, and other key stakeholders; and undertaking new research. In particular, the report urges (i) “published sodium reduction targets for foods”; (ii) “defined timelines”; (iii) “a mechanism…
