The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has issued an offer of settlement to Safeway Inc., claiming that it intends to sue the company if it fails to adequately notify its customers about the recall of contaminated foods. According to CSPI’s May 5, 2010, letter, Safeway has a club card membership program through which the retailer “can easily identify which Customers purchased products subject to Class 1 recalls, and then advise those Customers that they have purchased a product that puts them at risk of a serious health problem or death.” CSPI contends that Safeway’s competitors do this and that Safeway is engaging in “unfair and deceptive acts and practices by selling dangerous products and then failing to inform its Customers that they are at risk.” If the company does not agree to inform customers about food recalls by posting online warnings and in-store signs, as well as…
A San Francisco elected official has reportedly asked the city attorney to draft an ordinance that would prohibit “fast food restaurants from including toys with meals marketed at children that are high calorie, high sugar and high in fat.” The request comes after the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors’ recent approval of a similar ordinance. San Francisco District 1 Supervisor Eric Mar (D) told a news source that his effort is intended to reduce childhood obesity. “We will protect our communities from fast food companies that are spending $1.6 billion marketing their wares to children,” he said. See The San Francisco Examiner, April 28, 2010, and Nation’s Restaurant News, May 2, 2010.
The EU Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) has reportedly rejected a draft provision that sought to allow products from cloned animals and their descendants on the European market. ENVI considered the proposal as part of its efforts to update and simplify regulations pertaining to foods that “have not been consumed to any significant degree in the EU before May 1997.” These novel foods include those that are “newly developed, such as food produced by new production processes like nanotechnology, but also foods traditionally consumed outside the EU.” Members of European Parliament apparently voted 42-2 “in favor of entirely excluding food derived from cloned animals and their offspring from the scope of this legislation.” Instead, they have asked the European Commission, which initially proposed regulating these products under the novel foods framework, “to present a separate legislative proposal to prohibit food derived from cloned animals and their…
At the request of the Senate Committee on Finance, the U.S. International Trade Commission has initiated an investigation into “China’s Agricultural Trade: Competitive Conditions and Effects on U.S. Exports.” The commission will conduct a public hearing on the matter June 22, 2010, and the deadline for requests to appear is May 25. Prehearing briefs and statements must be filed no later than June 3. A commission report will be submitted to the Senate committee on March 1, 2011. According to the commission notice of investigation and hearing, the report will cover the conditions of competition in China’s agricultural market and trade from 2005 to 2009 or the latest year for which data are available. Among other matters, the report will include information about trends in production, consumption and trade in China’s agricultural market; government agricultural market programs and pricing and marketing regimes; China’s participation in global agricultural export markets; tariffs and…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has announced plans to publicize enforcement actions taken in response to violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). Starting in June 2010, APHIS will issue monthly press releases that disclose (i) people and businesses charged with AWA violations, and (ii) information about closed enforcement cases and penalties levied. The agency has reportedly revived the practice, which was discontinued in 2002, as part of its crackdown on AWA offenses. “It is clear that certain repeat offenders are not taking issues of animal welfare and humane treatment seriously enough. In turn, APHIS will not only be moving more swiftly to take enforcement action, but we will be making information about those enforcement actions available to the public on our Website,” APHIS Administrator Cindy Smith was quoted as saying.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has announced three public meetings for stakeholders to offer input on a new framework for animal disease traceability. Specific details for a proposed animal disease traceability rule will be discussed on May 11, 2010, in Kansas City, Missouri, May 13 in Riverdale, Maryland, and May 17 in Denver, Colorado. Written comments will be accepted until May 31. Additional meetings will be announced in a future Federal Register notice. See Federal Register, May 5, 2010.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) under the Sanitary Food Transportation Act of 2005 that establishes guidance on reducing the risk of food contamination during transport. The ANPRM is the first step in creating new federal regulations to govern sanitary practices by shippers, carriers by motor or rail vehicles, receivers, and others engaged in the transportation of food products for human and animal consumption. FDA has requested input from the food and transportation industries, consumer organizations and other parties on topics, including (i) whether and how information is shared among those involved, (ii) whether trucks used for transporting food should also be used for “nonfood products,” (iii) what reasons might waive “any and all” foreseeable rules intended to prevent contamination, and (iv) data on the risk of foodborne illness associated with the transportation of food. After evaluating responses to the notice,…
Featuring colorful graphics purporting to hawk products ranging from sugar-sweetened cereals and acne medication to sporting goods and meals sold at fast-food restaurants, a new website created by the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) Bureau of Consumer Protection seeks to provide children with the tools they need to properly understand and assess commercial speech. Designed for children in grades four through six, the interactive game with accompanying classroom materials urges children to keep three questions in mind whenever and wherever they are exposed to advertising: Who is responsible for the ad? What is the ad really saying? What does the ad want me to do? FTC announced the website’s launch in late April 2010, and bureau director David Vladeck said that its goal is “to help kids start to understand the commercial world they live in and to be alert to, and think critically, of advertising.” Vladeck reportedly confessed that he…
With a new working definition of “nanomaterials,” the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is apparently poised to launch new regulatory policies including those addressing the registration of pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide & Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The definition, revealed during a PowerPoint® presentation at an April 29, 2010, Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee meeting, is as follows: “An ingredient that contains particles that have been intentionally produced to have at least one dimension that measures between approximately 1 and 100 nanometers.” The pesticide registration policy, expected to be published in the Federal Register in June, would allow EPA to use section 6(a)(2) of FIFRA, which “requires pesticide product registrants to submit adverse effects information about their products,” to gather information about the use of nanoscale materials in pesticides. Registrants would be required to report the inclusion of nanoscale materials in a pesticide product already registered or pending registration. Under another new policy,…
Representative Rick Boucher (D-Va.) has released a draft bill that would address online privacy by regulating how web publishers and advertisers can collect and use personal information, such as name, address, Social Security number, and bank accounts, as well as implicit information, such as “click-stream.” While advertisers do not apparently dispute provisions that protect traditional personal information, they are concerned about the types of information they have been using in recent years to target ads relevant to users’ online viewing habits. The draft legislation includes as “covered information” “Any unique persistent identifier, such as a customer number, unique pseudonym or user alias, Internet Protocol address, or other unique identifier, where such identifier is used to collect, store, or identify information about a specific individual or a computer, device, or software application owned or used by a particular user or that is otherwise associated with a particular user.” Advertisers would not…
