Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey has announced to company employees that those meeting specific health-related criteria, including blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, and smoking status, will be eligible for an increased store discount. According to the announcement, the company spent more than $150 million in 2009 on employee health care, and the company is offering this “incentive” to lower its health care costs. Health screenings under the new program apparently began January 21, 2010, and discounts of up to 30 percent will be available to qualifying employees. The discount for those deciding not to participate in the program or those not qualifying is 20 percent. Meanwhile, Mackey, who voluntarily cut his annual salary to $1 in 2007, reportedly donated the after-tax compensation he received in 2009 from a previous incentive bonus plan to the Global Animal Partnership, a nonprofit organization developing new standards for the treatment of farm…
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has announced a February 2, 2010, public meeting in Washington, D.C., to solicit government perspectives on front-of-package nutrition labeling systems. The IOM Committee on Examination of Front-of-Package Nutrition Rating Systems and Symbols has invited input from various government agencies and study sponsors, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Created in response to a congressional mandate, the committee is working on behalf of CDC and FDA to review “the elements of the nutrition rating criteria and science underlying the front-of package systems.” In particular, the group is gathering information on (i) “front-of-package systems being used by manufacturers, supermarkets, health organizations, and governments in the United States and abroad”; (ii) “the purpose and overall merits of front-label nutrition icons”; (iii) “the criteria underlying the systems and . . . their scientific basis”; and (iv)…
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Dean Foods Co., claiming that the company’s 2009 acquisition of Foremost Farms USA’s Consumer Products Division “eliminates substantial competition between the two companies in the sale of milk to schools, grocery stores, convenience stores and other retailers in Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.” The attorneys general of these states joined the complaint. According to a Wall Street Journal report, this is the first such action DOJ has filed under the Obama administration. The complaint apparently seeks to undo the deal and require Dean Foods to notify the department at least 30 days before any future purchase of a milk processing operation. According to DOJ, the companies were the first and fourth largest in the region and their merger gave Dean Foods some 57 percent of the market for processed milk there. Local school districts evidently have fewer choices now…
New York Assemblyman Nelson Castro (D-86) has proposed an amendment (A09754) to the state’s agriculture and markets law that would require a warning label on all energy drinks. Citing “serious health risks including heart attack, stroke and even heart disease,” the provision calls for product warnings to appear in a black box and in letters “not less than eight point type.” It would also impose civil liability fines of $1,000 per violation. But unlike a similar proposal in Kentucky that reportedly focuses on caffeine content, the New York law defines an energy drink as containing “a combination of some or all of the following ingredients: sugar, methylkanthines, caffeine, vitamin E, herbs, guarana, açai, taurine, ginseng, maltodextrin, inositol, carnitine, creatine, glucuro-nolactone and ginkgo biloba.” This definition would exclude coffee, according to a January 26, 2010, article in Law360, which noted that the American Beverage Association has questioned the practicality of enforcing…
California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has been gathering information from companies that produce or import carbon nanotubes in the state and has posted the information received by its January 22, 2010, deadline on the agency’s website. The agency has also indicated which companies did not submit the information requested; a news source reports that DTSC may take action through the attorney general’s office against them. DTSC launched the information call-in program in 2009, hoping to identify information gaps and build data about carbon nanotubes. Manufacturers and importers were requested to supply information about “analytical test methods, fate and transport in the environment, and other relevant information.” The agency’s initial request involved reactive nanometal oxides, including aluminum oxide, silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide, and zinc dioxide. It has since identified as nanomaterials of interest nano silver, nano zerovalent iron and cerium oxide. According to a press report, agency sources have…
The Washington and Wisconsin legislatures have reportedly passed bills that would prohibit the use of bisphenol A (BPA) in baby bottles, sipping cups and other food and beverage containers intended for children younger than age 3. In light of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) recent decision to reassess the plasticizer’s safety, the Washington House of Representatives voted 95-1 in favor of legislation (H. 1180) that would prohibit BPA in bottles, cups or other containers designed primarily for this age group, as well as any sports water bottles, as of July 1, 2011. The bill now heads to the Senate, where the Health and Long-Term Care Committee has delivered a similar version to legislators. Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Senate has adopted its own BPA measure (S. 127), an identical version of which has already passed the Assembly Consumer Protection Committee and now awaits that chamber’s approval. In addition, Vermont lawmakers recently…
In a development only recently noticed in the United States, New Zealand’s Commerce Commission took action in late 2009 against a poultry producer that claimed its chickens contained no genetically modified (GM) ingredients. According to a November 18, 2009, commission news release, Inghams Enterprises (NZ) Pty. Limited was warned that it risked breaching the Fair Trading Act by stating that its chicken products contained “No . . . GM ingredients” and “have no added hormones, GM ingredients or artificial colours,” when the company’s chickens were fed with a product that contained 13 percent GM soy. The commission based its action on a report issued by a Canterbury University genetics and molecular biology professor who concluded that “GM plant material can transfer to animals exposed to GM feeds in their diets or environment, and that there can be a residual difference in animals or animal-products as a result of exposure to GM…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Food and Drug Administration have announced a February 8, 2010, public meeting to discuss draft U.S. positions for the 42nd Session of the Codex Committee on Food Additives (CCFA) slated for March 15-19, 2010, in Beijing, China. Co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the meeting will include discussions concerning (i) “endorsement and/or revision of maximum levels for food additives and processing aids in [C]odex standards”; (ii) “draft and proposed draft food additive provisions of the General Standards for Food Additives (GSFA)”; (iii) “proposals for changes or additions to the International Numbering System (INS) for food additives”; (iv) “identification of problems and recommendations related to the inconsistent presentation of food additives provisions in Codex commodity standards; and (v) “the Codex standard for food grade salt.” See Federal Register, January 28, 2010.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has announced a series of stakeholder meetings intended to address the “views, concerns, and issues surrounding the hazards of combustible dust,” which may be formed in agricultural and grain-handling workplaces and factories that manufacture food, animal food, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals. For the February 17, 2010, meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, OSHA is soliciting feedback on (i) possible regulatory approaches to handling the hazards of combustible dust; (ii) the scope of any rulemaking; (iii) the organization of a prospective standard; (iv) the role of consensus standards; and (v) consequent economic impacts. OSHA held a similar meeting December 14, 2009, and additional meetings are planned for 2010. The agency previously published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking that requested comments, including data and other information, on issues related to the hazards of combustible dust in the workplace. According to OSHA, “Materials that…
The Food and Drug Administration’s Science Board has announced a February 22, 2010, public meeting to discuss “an interim report from its subcommittee reviewing research at the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.” The advisory board is also slated to discuss “plans to establish another subcommittee to review research programs at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research” and “updates on science programs at the Office of Regulatory Affairs and the National Center for Toxicological Research.” FDA plans to make background material available no later than two business days before the meeting. See Federal Register, January 27, 2010.
