Acting on behalf of an apparently energized Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a complaint for injunction against a New Jersey company and its owner seeking to halt the manufacture and sale of their dietary supplement products, in part, for failure to comply with good manufacturing practice requirements. U.S. v. Quality Formulation Labs., Inc., No. 09-03211 (D.N.J., filed July 1, 2009). The complaint alleges that the defendants have caused their protein powders and other dietary supplements to be adulterated “in that they have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with filth (as a result of rodent activity) or may have been rendered injurious to health (as a result of cross-contamination with a major food allergen).” The allergen at issue is milk. The complaint also alleges that one of the defendants’ articles of food is adulterated “in…
According to news sources, the scientific advisory committee considering whether to place bisphenol A (BPA) on California’s Proposition 65 (Prop. 65) list of chemicals known to the state to cause reproductive effects has voted against the action, calling research on human health effects unclear. During the committee’s July 15, 2009, meeting, dozens of mothers, environmentalists and scientists reportedly provided testimony to the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee of Cal/EPA’s Office of Environmental and Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), calling on the agency to list BPA so that warning labels would be added to foods alerting consumers to its presence. The committee’s scientists apparently acknowledged the growing body of research linking BPA to fetal abnormalities in animals and noted that its decision could be revisited if future studies provide clearer evidence of human health effects. According to committee member Carl Keen, the scientists decided not to list environmental tobacco smoke (ETS)…
USDA’s Economic Research Service has issued a report to Congress that assesses the effects of “food deserts,” low-income rural or urban neighborhoods that frequently lack access to affordable, healthy food venues like supermarkets but instead offer convenience and small neighborhood stores that offer few, if any, healthy foods. Public health literature links such access issues to obesity and diet-related diseases. Titled “Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food: Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences,” the report asserts that “a small percentage of consumers are constrained in their ability to access affordable, nutritious food because they live far from a supermarket or large grocery store and do not have easy access to transportation.” USDA notes that the causes of limited food access varied between urban core areas, which were “characterized by higher levels of racial segregation and greater income inequality,” and small-town and rural areas, where “lack of transportation infrastructure…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has issued a proposed rule and referendum procedures that would establish “a new U.S. honey producer funded research and promotion program” in accordance with a U.S. Honey Producer Research, Promotion and Consumer Information Order submitted May 24, 2007, by the American Honey Producers Association (AHPA). Representing more than 550 domestic operators, AHPA has called for the implementation of a U.S. Honey Producers Board to address industry issues “such as the drastic decline in the numbers of the honeybee due to (1) natural pests and diseases that kill or weaken the honeybee; (2) record droughts in the mid-west [sic] that have destroyed the plants and flowers honeybees use to gather pollen, and (3) the overall dramatic decrease in demand for U.S. honey.” To finance this initiative, AMS would require first handlers who produce more than 100,000 pounds of honey annually to collect…
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has released the results of experimental studies examining the relationship between TV food advertising and consumption. Titled “Priming Effects of Television Food Advertising on Eating Behavior,” the article appears in the July edition of Health Psychology and concludes that “food advertising on television increases automatic snacking on available foods in children and adults.” Authors Jennifer Harris, John Bargh and Kelly Brownell observed elementary-school-aged children who received a snack while watching programs that featured either food advertising or advertising for other products. The authors also followed adults exposed to (i) “food advertising that promoted snacking and/or fun product benefits”; (ii) “food advertising that promoted nutrition benefits” or (iii) “no food advertising.” The adults then “tasted and evaluated a range of healthy to unhealthy snack foods.” According to the article, the children “consumed 45 percent more when exposed to food advertising,” while adults…
A recent study has reportedly claimed that mothers of premature babies “have, on average, up to three times the phthalate level in their urine compared to women who carry to term.” John Meeker, et al., “Urinary Phthalate Metabolites in Relation to Preterm Birth in Mexico City,” Environmental Health Perspectives, June 16, 2009. Collaborating with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico, researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health (UM SPH) analyzed urine samples taken during the third trimester, finding that 30 women who delivered before 37 weeks gestation had “significantly higher phthalate levels” than 30 women experiencing full-term pregnancies and women in a control group. “We looked at these commonly used compounds found in consumer products based on the growing amount of animal toxicity data and since the national human data show that a large proportion of…
“Industry critics compare the intent of fast-food companies to that of cigarette makers, who first came under attack for marketing to children decades ago,” writes BusinessWeek’s Douglas MacMillan in this article detailing the efforts of consumer advocacy groups to outlaw food advertising to children. According to MacMillan, “public criticism and mountains of data linking obesity, diabetes and other health problems to the regular consumption of fast food has [sic] caused the industry to rethink its entrenched practice of marketing to kids.” His overview cites the creation of the Children’s Food & Beverage Initiative under the auspices of the Council for Better Business Bureaus (CBBB), which requires signatories to limit their advertising to children and promote food considered healthy by the Food and Drug Administration. This initiative, however, has apparently failed to deter groups like Corporate Accountability International, which has taken up the banner against fast-food companies. “Both the tobacco and fast-food industries…
“Relaxation of the federal standards, and an explosion of consumer demand, have helped push the organics market into a $23 billion-a-year business, the fastest segment of the food industry,” claim Washington Post writers Kimberly Kindy and Lyndsey Layton in a July 3, 2009, investigative report alleging that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its officials with the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) have diluted organic regulations in response to “corporate firepower.” The article states that since its inception in 2002, the list of synthetics permitted in organic products has grown to 245 substances from 77, while only one item has ever been removed from the list. “The argument is not whether the non-organics pose a health threat, but whether they weaken the integrity of the federal organic label,” according to the report, which notes that USDA’s Inspector General’s Office is investigating allegations of non-compliance and complaints about the program’s…
A Plainview, Minnesota, milk cooperative has reportedly recalled two years’ worth of food products, including instant non-fat dried milk, whey protein, and fruit stabilizers and gums for fear that they are contaminated with Salmonella. While no illnesses have apparently been linked to the products, which are sold to food manufacturers and distributors only, the recall has been further expanded to products containing these ingredients. Among the other recalled foods are instant oatmeal, hot chocolate mix, popcorn toppings and shake mixes. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reportedly detected Salmonella in a milkshake powder in June, and Food and Drug Administration investigators found the bacteria in the Plainview Milk Products Cooperative plant. See UPI.com, June 29, 2009; USA Today, July 6, 2009; FDA Press Release, July 8, 2009.
According to news sources, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspectors have found E. coli in a package of cookie dough at Nestlé USA’s plant in Danville, Virginia. The strain did not, however, match the DNA fingerprint of the strain purportedly linked to the illnesses of some 72 people in 30 states. FDA’s David Acheson, assistant commissioner for food safety, commenting on the continuing mystery as to how the E. coli contaminated the cookie dough, was quoted as saying, “This will be one of those situations where we won’t definitely know what went wrong.” The agency’s findings could affect the product liability lawsuits already pending in several states. Investigators reportedly performed more than 1,000 tests on environmental and other samples from the plant, but found no evidence of the potentially deadly bacteria inside the facility or on any equipment. The company has apparently begun a “controlled production startup” after discarding all stockpiled…
