The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reportedly noted an increase in rare human swine influenza infections, documenting two similar cases in California children not directly exposed to livestock. The agency stated that it typically registers one human swine influenza case every year or two in the United States, but has verified 12 infections between December 2005 and February 2009. CDC also confirmed seven additional cases in Texas and California during March 2009, describing a unique influenza strain that combines segments of a human virus, an avian virus from North America, and pig viruses from North America, Europe and Asia. In addition, Mexican health officials have reported that a swine influenza outbreak recently killed 16 people, including children and young adults, and sickened as many as 943 in the Mexico City area. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization and other experts have expressed concern that the cases, if…
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced that Kellogg Co. agreed to settle false-advertising charges involving Frosted Mini-Wheats® advertisements that claimed the product was “clinically shown to improve kids’ attentiveness by nearly 20 percent.” According to FTC, the clinical study on which the ads were based showed that “only about half the children who ate Frosted Mini-Wheats for breakfast showed any improvement in attentiveness, and only about one in nine improved by 20 percent or more.” Under the consent order, Kellogg agrees to pull its offending ads and not to express or imply that its cereal improves attentiveness “unless, at the time [the claim] is made, the representation is true and non-misleading.” The company also agreed not to make any representation “about the benefits, performance, or efficacy of such product for cognitive function, cognitive processes, or cognitive health, unless the representation . . . relies upon competent and reliable scientific…
A recent study has reportedly linked cognitive decline in some diabetic women to high intakes of saturated and trans fats and low intakes of polyunsaturated fats during midlife. Elizabeth E. Devore, “Dietary Fat Intake and Cognitive Decline in Women With Type 2 Diabetes,” Diabetes Care, April 2009. Harvard Medical School researchers apparently assessed the cognitive functioning of approximately 1,500 women with type 2 diabetes enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study, finding that those in the highest tertile of trans fat intake scored 0.15 standard units lower on six cognitive function tests when compared to women in the lowest tertile. “This mean difference was comparable with the difference we find in women 7 years apart in age,” stated the authors, who noted a need for “further research to confirm these findings and explore additional strategies for maintaining cognitive health in diabetes – especially in women, who can have a higher lifetime…
“Free range is not necessarily natural. In fact, free-range is like piggy day care, a thoughtfully arranged system designed to meet the needs of consumers who despise industrial agriculture and adore the idea of wildness,” writes James McWilliams in this op-ed article questioning claims that free-range products confer “indisputable” health benefits. According to McWilliams, a recent study published in Foodborne Pathogens and Disease found that free-range pigs had higher rates of Salmonella and Toxoplasmosis than conventional livestock and that two specimens carried the parasite responsible for Trichinosis, a potentially fatal infection all but eliminated in the commercial pork supply. McWilliams notes that a desire for the “superior taste” of free-range pork has led many connoisseurs to conflate “the highly controlled grazing of pigs” with “wild animals in a state of nature,” an assumption that obfuscates the “arbitrary point between the wild and the domesticate.” “Even if the texture conferred on pork…
“Because excess consumption of unhealthful foods underlies many leading causes of death, food taxes at the local, state and national levels are likely to remain part of political and public discourse,” claims this editorial co-authored by Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity Director Kelly Brownell and New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Freiden, who write in favor of a penny-per-ounce excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. Describing these products as “the single largest driver of the obesity epidemic,” the article compares a soft drink tax to similar taxes on tobacco “that have been highly effective in reducing consumption.” The authors specifically argue that an excise tax would help (i) reduce health care and other societal costs for obesity and diet-related diseases; (ii) correct an “informational asymmetry” between marketers and younger audiences, “who often cannot distinguish a television program from an advertisement”; and (iii) generate revenue, “which can further…
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is sponsoring a National Conference on Childhood Obesity on June 18-19, 2009, in Washington, D.C. The event will address (i) evidence-based links between diet, obesity and chronic disease, (ii) opportunities in clinical practice for preventing and treating obesity and related chronic diseases, (iii) the ways that school food programs and government policies affect children, and (iv) upcoming changes to nutrition guidelines and related government policies.
The consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch (FWWatch) recently launched a campaign to block chicken imports from China, where several U.S. companies are reportedly building plants. Alleging that these corporations are “putting pressure” on lawmakers, FWWatch has asked Congress to uphold its 2008 ban on imported processed poultry in light of “specific problems” with China’s food safety standards and inspection system. In particular, the group pointed to the rejection of other Chinese imports due to “contamination with melamine or banned chemicals like chloramphenicol; pesticide residues and unsafe additives; and conditions inspectors described as ‘poisonous’ and ‘filthy.’” “Even worse,” according to FWWatch, “China has experienced several outbreaks of the very contagious bird flu that has not only infected poultry but also been fatally transmitted to humans.” See Food & Water Watch Action Alert, April 14, 2009.
According to the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (BBB), Wrigley should modify or discontinue some of the claims it makes for its Eclipse® brand chewing gum. Following a challenge by Cadbury Adams USA, which makes competing products, the BBB’s advertising division examined Wrigley claims that its gum “kills germs and cures bad breath.” The division determined that such claims “convey the message that Eclipse with MBE [magnolia bark extract] is different from other gums based on its germ killing capabilities which is attributable to the addition of MBE.” Because scientific studies did not provide the support necessary to substantiate the claims due to purported methodological flaws, the division “recommended that the print advertising and packaging claims be discontinued or modified to indicate that there is emerging evidence as to MBE’s germ killing capability without expressly or by implication communicating that there is credible scientific evidence…
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has turned aside a constitutional challenge to the statutory damages provisions of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act in litigation against a food establishment that allegedly printed more than the last five digits of a customer’s credit card number on an electronically generated receipt. Harris v. Mexican Specialty Foods, Inc., Nos. 08-13510 & -13616 (11th Cir., decided April 9, 2009). The district court had granted the merchants’ motions for summary judgment and dismissed the claims with prejudice, after finding the statutory damages provision unconstitutionally vague and excessive. According to the appeals court, which addressed only the facial challenge to the law, by providing for a range of damages (from $100 to $1,000), the law does not deprive potential defendants of notice of the consequences of violations or result in arbitrarily assessed damages awards. The court remanded the litigation for further proceedings.
Finding that a trial court erred in admitting evidence and instructing the jury in a lawsuit involving claims that milk permeate sickened or killed calves that were fed the product as a source of dietary energy, protein and minerals, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has returned a breach-of-warranties lawsuit to the lower court for a new trial. Millenkamp v. Davisco Foods Int’l, Inc., Nos. 07-35299 & -35318 (9th Cir., decided April 14, 2009). The defendant allegedly advised the owners of a cattle operation about the use of milk permeate as a food source for their calves and then sold the product to them. When their calves fell ill and some died, the plaintiffs learned that they had stored the product at an improper temperature, “which allowed lactose to ferment into a harmful lactic acid that caused the calves to fall prey to rumen acidosis.” The plaintiffs sued for breach…
