The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued a new set of performance standards to reduce the incidence of Salmonella and Campylobacter bacteria in young chickens and turkeys. The new standards hold poultry slaughterhouses more accountable by decreasing the number of samples allowed to test positive for the pathogens. After two years under the new standards, USDA predicts that 39,000 illnesses due to Campylobacter will be avoided each year as will 26,000 fewer illnesses attributable to Salmonella. Although Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) Food Safety Director Caroline Smith DeWaal generally welcomed the standards, she lamented the fact that “USDA still lacks authority to enforce these standards by closing failing plants. For consumers to fully realize the benefits of the improved standards, Congress should reinstate USDA’s authority to enforce its performance standards.” In a related move, FSIS has issued the third edition of a…
While the president’s Task Force on Childhood Obesity released its action plan with 70 specific recommendations to significant praise and fanfare this week, nutrition professor and author Marion Nestle questioned whether the ideas will actually work given their reliance on voluntary collaboration and participation. She said in her blog, “Voluntary, as evidence demonstrates, does not work for the food industry. Much leadership will be needed to make this plan work. But these recommendations should give advocates plenty of inspiration to continue working on these issues.” First lady Michelle Obama joined several task force members when the report was issued and said, “For the first time, the nation will have goals, benchmarks, and measurable outcomes that will help us tackle the childhood obesity epidemic one child, one family, and one community at a time. We want to marshal every resource—public and private sector, mayors and governors, parents and educators, business owners…
“Don’t you love the idea of year-old infants drinking sugar-sweetened chocolate milk? And laced with ‘omega-3s for brain development, 25 nutrients for healthy growth, and prebiotics to support the immune system’?,” opines New York University Professor Marion Nestle in an April 26, 2010, Food Politics blog post decrying chocolate dietary supplements for toddlers ages 12 to 36 months. Claiming that consumers are paying 86 cents “for only six ounces of unnecessarily fortified milk plus unnecessary sugar and chocolate,” Nestle implies that chocolate- and vanilla-flavored formulas directly compete with milk as a weaning food. She also urges the Food and Drug Administration to issue warning letters to manufacturers whose products feature “front-of-package health claims clearly aimed at babies” younger than age 2. “No wonder Jamie Oliver encountered so much grief about trying to get sweetened, flavored milks out of schools,” writes Nestle. “Next: let’s genetically modify moms to produce chocolate breast…
An umbrella organization for animal welfare groups in the European Union has reportedly signed a declaration creating the Transatlantic Animal Welfare Council (TAWC), a cooperative agreement with U.S. activists that seeks to enforce humane handling standards in international trade. According to Eurogroup for Animals, the new forum seeks to “optimize resources by sharing knowledge, expertise and experience” among TAWC signatories, which include the Animal Welfare Institute, Compassion in World Farming, the Humane Society of the United States, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and the Royal Society for the Preservation of Animals. To this end, TAWC will convene “a plenary session two times per year and set up a number of expert working groups to focus on specific topics of mutual interest, such as animal testing, sustainable agriculture as well as specific bilateral and multilateral trade issues. ” TAWC apparently aims to build upon the efforts of the Transatlantic Economic…
British Heart Foundation Chief Executive Peter Hollins has penned an article in the April 2010 issue of Parliament Magazine that urges members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to undertake more stringent reform of food labeling laws. “To improve diets across Europe, the European Heart Network (EHN) advocates for clear and consistent labels on all foods that will help European consumers understand the nutritional content of the food they are buying,” writes Hollins in support of mandatory nutrition facts as well as front-of-pack traffic light systems. Hollins claims that the guideline daily amounts (GDAs) favored by the food and beverage industry do not provide “an interpretation of relative healthiness in the quick and simple way that consumer surveys repeatedly show traffic light colors do.” He specifically claims that “the strongest front of pack label is one combining traffic light colors, use of the words ‘high ‘medium’, and ‘low’, and GDAs.” This…
Citizens for Health is calling on supporters to contact their congressional representatives to vote for a number of bills that would allow food producers and manufacturers of food supplements to make health-related claims for their products on the basis of peer-reviewed scientific evidence. Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas) introduced the Freedom of Health Speech Act (H.R. 3394) and the Health Freedom Act (H.R. 3395) in 2009; both were referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce where they remain pending. Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) introduced the Free Speech About Science Act of 2010 (H.R. 4913) in March; it was also referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. See Citizens for Health Action Alert, May 5, 2010.
Recent developments in the ongoing food safety debate over the production and sale of raw milk have recently focused the media spotlight in several states. According to a Denver Post article, Colorado is one of 29 states allowing “cow-share programs” to side-step laws that forbid the retail sale of raw milk, consumption of which has allegedly been linked to a resurgence of milk-related sickness in the United States. Under a cow-share program, consumers hold shares in dairy herds and receive raw milk products as a return on their investment. Some 60 Colorado dairies apparently now offer the service. Meanwhile, similar “buying clubs” are reportedly under fire in Massachusetts, where the mainstream dairy industry has, according to reports, lobbied Commissioner of the Department of Agricultural Resources Scott Soares to begin cracking down on the clubs. The department reportedly sent cease-and-desist letters to four buying clubs early in 2010. Mobilizing support for…
A recent report examining trends in energy drink consumption claims that the U.S. market’s “exponential growth” has outpaced regulatory mechanisms designed for other beverages. M.A. Heckman, K. Sherry and E. Gonzalez de Mejia, “Energy Drinks: An Assessment of Their Market Size, Consumer Demographics, Ingredient Profile, Functionality, and Regulation in the United States,” Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, May 2010. University of Illinois researchers apparently found that, despite a lack of scientific consensus as to their physiological and cognitive effects, energy drinks represent “more than 200 brands in the United States alone, all purporting to increase energy, longevity, and vitality in some form or another.” The report provides an overview of these marketing strategies as well as common energy drink ingredients, including caffeine, taurine, guarana, ginseng, yerba mate, B vitamins and “health-promoting constituents” like antioxidant polyphenols. It claims that the majority of such products are pitched to teenagers and…
Some two years after a raid on a Postville, Iowa, kosher slaughterhouse for the employment of hundreds of illegal immigrants, charges of child-labor law violations are apparently about to be tried in state court against former executive Sholom Rubashkin. Prosecutors reportedly dropped many related charges against other individuals on the eve of trial. Rubashkin, who was also charged with bank, mail and wire fraud and violations of the Packers & Stockyards Act, appeared at a federal court sentencing hearing in late April 2010, facing a potential life sentence in prison. According to news sources, the court will hand down a sentencing order sometime in May; a number of former U.S. attorneys general and U.S. attorneys submitted a letter to the court to express concern about the imposition of a life sentence on a first-time, non-violent offender. See National Law Journal and The Blog of Legal Times, April 26, 2010; Feedstuffs.com,…
Alleging that her habit of consuming two to three bags of microwave popcorn daily between 1991 and 2007 caused her severe lung disease, a New York resident has sued a host of defendants, including 100 “John Does,” in state court. Mercado v. ConAgra Foods, Inc., No. __ (N.Y. Sup. Ct., Queens Cty., filed May 3, 2010). Agnes Mercado, who claims that her lung disease requires the regular use of an oxygen tank and will likely require a lung transplant, contends that the diactyl in Act II buttered popcorn caused her injury. She sued the product’s manufacturer, flavoring companies and unknown companies that “manufactured, designed, packaged, marketed, labeled and sold added diacetyl to Givaudan for use in its butter flavorings that were sold and distributed to ConAgra for use in ConAgra’s Act II Lite microwave popcorn.” The plaintiff claims that any statutes of limitations have been tolled by defendants’ concealment of information…
