The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced the availability of a new general food defense plan developed by the Office of Data Integration and Food Protection, with input from small and very small establishments. FSIS has notified facilities identified in a 2008 survey as lacking a food defense program about the voluntary general plan, which aims to “reduce the chances of someone intentionally contaminating the food supply in order to kill or hurt people, disrupt [the] economy, or ruin [their] business.” Designed to reduce company liability, the general food defense plan includes sections on (i) outside security measures, (ii) inside security measures, (iii) personnel security measures, and (iv) incident report security measures. FSIS will also conduct a second food defense survey in December 2009. See Meatingplace.com, September 30, 2009.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the European Union (EU) have announced separate plans to study nanotechnology, a field believed to have huge potential in food processing and packaging. EPA’s strategy involves studying over the next several years how manufactured nanomaterials may harm human health and the environment. “EPA’s role among federal agencies is to determine the potential hazards of nanotechnology and develop approaches to reduce or minimize any risks identified,” according to an EPA news release. The research will use a “multidisciplinary approach that examines all aspects of nanomaterials in the environment, from their manufacture and use to their disposal or recycling.” EU plans to develop a strategy on how best to reap the economic benefits of nanotechnology because of its “exceptional importance for being at the forefront of managing the shift to a low carbon, knowledge-based economy,” according to an EU news release. “Mastering such technologies lays [a]…
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson has urged Congress to pass sweeping legislative reform of the country’s chemical management law and announced plans to review the controversial food-packaging chemical bisphenol A and the perfluorinated chemicals used in nonstick cookware. In a September 29, 2009, speech at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, Jackson claimed that the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) has “fallen behind the industry it’s supposed to regulate. It’s been proven an inadequate tool for providing the protection against chemical risks that the public rightfully expects,” she said, declaring that as “more and more chemicals are found in our bodies and the environment, the public is understandably anxious and confused.” Legislation to strengthen TSCA is expected to be introduced soon. The Obama administration has issued “Essential Principles for Reform of Chemicals Management Legislation,” to aid Congress during the legislative process. The six principles would give EPA the…
A recent study presented at the American Heart Association’s High Blood Pressure Research Conference has reportedly claimed that a diet high in fructose raises blood pressure in men, but that the gout drug allopurinol may counteract this effect. “This is the first study to show that fructose can raise blood pressure in humans,” lead author Richard Johnson of the University of Colorado, Aurora, was quoted as saying. The study followed 74 adult men, whose average age was 51, for two weeks as they consumed 200 additional grams of fructose per day. In addition, one-half of the participant pool acted as a control and one-half received allopurinol. The results apparently showed that the control group experienced significant average increases in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, while the men taking allopurinol saw little or no increase in systolic pressure. Johnson told a news source that it was “remarkable” how quickly people with…
“Sugar is the most absurdly protected agricultural commodity in America,” according to health nutrition author and New York University Professor Marion Nestle, who answered reader questions about sugar policy during a September 20, 2009, online forum hosted by the San Francisco Chronicle’s website, SFGate.com. In explaining the so-called “sugar crisis,” Nestle stated that “Quotas allow U.S. producers to grow only specified amounts of sugar cane and sugar beets each year, for which the USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture] guarantees a higher-than-market price.” She noted that these quotas and import tariffs have “ensured that Americans pay two or three times as much for sugar,” resulting in the “unnecessary transfer of $3 billion a year from 350 million Americans to a few thousand sugar growers and processors.” With these industry interests allegedly invested in “sugar protectionism,” Nestle reported that these policies might finally change partly “because the gap between domestic and world…
“It may take more than an analogy with tobacco to convince voters,” argues Daniel Engber in the first of two recent Slate articles questioning the effectiveness of a proposed federal tax on sugar-sweetened beverages and other “hyperpalatable” food products. Titled “Let Them Drink Water: What a Fat Tax Really Means for America,” the article asserts that state-levied soda taxes have thus far “turned out to be way too small to make anyone lose weight.” It states that any successful effort to deter consumption would require redefining soda as drug, not a beverage. “It’s hard to draw a line, though, between foods that are drugs and foods that are merely delicious,” opines Engber, who notes that under this regime, “Doughnuts are a drug; brioche is treat.” He concludes that fat taxes, which “[discriminate] among the varieties of gustatory experience,” would create an “apartheid of pleasure” that disproportionately affects those consumers most…
The British Medical Association (BMA) has issued a September 2009 report titled Under the Influence: The Damaging Effect of Alcohol Marketing on Young People, which aims “to identify effective ways of protecting young people from the influence of alcohol promotion and marketing.” Led by Institute for Social Marketing Director Gerald Hastings, the report purportedly “confirms that alcohol marketing is independently linked to the onset of drinking in young people and the amount they drink,” according to an accompanying article published in the September 12, 2009, edition of the British Medical Journal. The report also apparently criticizes regulators for allowing the UK alcohol industry, which allegedly spends approximately £800 million per year on advertising, to fund the public education program known as Drinkaware Trust. The BMA Science Board has urged UK policy makers to counter these “ineffective educational initiatives and partial solutions” by adopting several measures, including a comprehensive ban on all alcohol…
Authored by a recent law school graduate, this article explores the science of animal cloning and the purported shortcomings in existing regulatory authorities to adequately protect the consuming public from potential cloned animal product risks. Noting that animal cloning technology relies, for the most part, on a process that does not create a “pure, one hundred percent genetic clone,” the author recommends the creation of a Food and Drug Administration “Office of Transgenic and Cloned Products” to regulate cloning processes and “take a holistic approach to risk assessment.” She also calls for cloned animal product labeling to “ensure human food consumption safety” and “allow American consumers to choose not to eat cloned animal products, thereby respecting their moral, religious and ethical values.”
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has sued KFC Corp. and its parent Yum! Brands, Inc. in a California court, alleging that they have failed to comply with Proposition 65 (Prop. 65) by selling grilled chicken without warning consumers that it contains a substance, PhIP, known to the state to cause cancer. PCRM v. KFC Corp., No. __ (Cal. Super. Ct., San Francisco Cty., filed September 23, 2009). According to a news source, the allegations are nearly identical to litigation PCRM filed in 2008 against other fast-food restaurants. A court dismissed that complaint, citing the preemption of Prop. 65 claims by federal law which requires chicken to be cooked to food-safe temperatures. PCRM has reportedly appealed the court’s ruling, arguing that the food-safe temperature requirement is merely U.S. Department of Agriculture policy and that states traditionally govern public health and safety issues. KFC was not apparently included in the earlier…
A California man who alleges that he was misled by the packaging and advertising for Cap’n Crunch with Cruncherries® has brought a putative class action against the cereal maker in federal district court. Werbel v. Pepsico, Inc., No. 09-4456 (N.D. Cal., filed September 22, 2009). Alleging violations of California’s unfair competition and false advertising laws, intentional misrepresentation, breach of express and implied warranties, and violations of the Consumers Legal Remedies Act, the plaintiff claims that he and a class of California consumers were misled by representations that the product contained fruit. Yet, according to the complaint, “the only fruit content is a touch of strawberry fruit concentrate—twelfth in order on the ingredient list, just after partially hydrogenated soybean oil and ‘natural and artificial flavors,’ and just before malic acid.” According to the complaint, the plaintiff “trusted the Quaker label because of the company’s long history of producing other wholesome breakfast…
