A federal court in Missouri has determined that Texas plaintiffs alleging injury from the contamination of conventional rice crops with genetically modified (GM) rice had no reasonable basis to join non-diverse defendants and thus denied their motion to remand to state court. In re Genetically Modified Rice Litig., MDL No. 1811 (E.D. Mo., decided March 24, 2009). The 34 cases at issue were transferred from Texas to the Missouri court along with some 200 others from four other states as part of a multidistrict litigation proceeding. Rice farmers allege that the GM rice contamination adversely affected the global market for their products. The Texas plaintiffs sued the GM seed rice company and its affiliates, citizens of states other than Texas, and also sued a Texas rice grower and his affiliated companies alleging that he negligently grew the GM rice and contaminated neighboring fields or sold them GM seed rice. Plaintiffs…
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a district court decision refusing to allow the sale of baby formula seized by the government in a civil forfeiture proceeding. U.S. v. Approx. 81,454 Cans of Baby Formula, No. 08-2637 (7th Cir., decided March 25, 2009). Federal agents seized more than 80,000 cans of powdered baby formula in February 2007 on suspicion that they had been stolen from retail stores. According to the court, many of the cans still had retail-store markings or evidence of altered labels, including the products’ “use by” dates. The court distinguished this case from one involving salad dressing, decided earlier in March, that had altered “best when purchased by” dates. Details about that case appear in issue 296 of this Update. Judge Richard Posner authored the opinions in both cases. A “use by” date on baby formula is mandatory under federal law; selling products after that…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) has announced a public meeting slated for May 4-6, 2009, at The Washington Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C. NOSB committees will present recommendations to the full board for a vote concerning (i) the use or prohibition of 13 petitioned substances for the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances; (ii) revisions to the NOSB policy and procedures manual and the Guide for New NOSB Members; (iii) guidance for accredited certifying agents regarding the use of the 100 percent label claim on processed products and the strengthening of the on-farm implementation of the principals of biodiversity and conservatism; (iv) guidance to the National Organic Program (NOP) regarding compliance with the Peer Review requirements of the Organic Foods Production Act and the organic regulations; (v) guidance on standards for the management of bivalves; and (vi) a change to the definition of nonagricultural…
A new U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report claims that a lack of cooperation among federal agencies has contributed to an increase in seafood supply chain fraud. GAO faults Customs and Border Protection, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Food and Drug Administration for failing to agree on key roles and responsibilities, identify a common goal, and establish joint strategies. “As a result, the agencies have not taken advantage of opportunities to share information that could benefit each agency’s efforts to detect and prevent seafood fraud, nor have they identified similar and sometimes overlapping activities that could be better coordinated to use limited resources more efficiently,” the report states. See foodproductiondaily.com, March 25, 2009.
A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report has determined that nearly 70 percent of the U.S. adult population should limit sodium intake to 1,500 mg/day. According to the CDC’s March 27, 2009, MMWR Weekly, the federal government recommended in 2005 that “all persons with hypertension, all middle-aged and older adults, and all blacks” should limit their sodium intake to 1,500 mg/day, and 69.2 percent of adults met these criteria in 2005-2006. The limit for adults without these characteristics remains at 2,300 mg/day, or about one teaspoon. Because CDC based its estimate of those in the group that should consume less salt on NHANES data, which do not include institutionalized individuals, the CDC cautions that their inclusion “likely would increase the percentage of the population for whom the recommended 1,500 mg/day sodium limit is applicable.” CDC notes, “Most of the sodium we eat comes from packaged, processed, store-bought,…
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has reportedly commissioned a study showing that one-quarter of food facilities contacted by federal health investigators were unaware of laws requiring them to trace their suppliers. Authored by HHS Inspector General Daniel Levinson, the report also found that despite federal regulations, most food manufacturers and distributors were unable to identify the suppliers or recipients of their products. Levinson has apparently recommended that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seek greater authority from Congress to require and ensure that food facilities maintain adequate records. According to The New York Times, which obtained a copy of the report expected to be released at a congressional hearing next Thursday, the department’s findings may help explain why many small food makers continue to issue peanut-related recalls more than two months after the Peanut Corp. of America was implicated in a Salmonella outbreak linked to nine deaths…
A California appeals court has determined that canned tuna sold in the state does not need a mercury warning label under Proposition 65 (Prop. 65) for reproductive toxicity because the mercury is naturally occurring and thus falls within a Prop. 65 exemption. People ex rel. Brown v. Tri-Union Seafoods, LLC, No. A116792 (Cal. Ct. App., decided March 11, 2009). A trial court ruled in 2006 that the labels were not required because (i) federal law preempts state action on methylmercury in fish; (ii) the trace levels of mercury in canned tuna were too insignificant to require warnings; and (iii) the mercury is naturally occurring. Further information about that ruling appears in issue 170 of this Update. The appeals court specifically considered and based its ruling on the last basis for decision only, finding that substantial evidence supported the trial court’s determination as to the source of mercury contamination in fish.…
A Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study has reportedly found evidence that houseflies living near poultry operations could contribute to the spread of drug-resistant bacteria among humans. Researchers collected flies and poultry-litter samples from farming operations in the coastal regions of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, which has “one of the highest densities of broiler chickens per acre in the United States.” Slated for publication in the April 2009 issue of Science and the Total Environment, the results showed similar strains of antibiotic-resistant Enterococci and Staphylococci in both the flies and the litter, leading the study authors to speculate that “flies in intensive production areas could efficiently spread resistance organisms over large distances.” “The findings demonstrate another potential link between industrial food animal production and exposures to antibiotic resistant bacteria,” states a March 16, 2009, press release issued by the school’s Center for a Livable Future.
Mineral-water bottles made with PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, a chemical used in many food and beverage containers, particularly those marked with the number 1 inside a triangle, have been found to leach an unknown estrogen-mimicking chemical. Martin Wagner & Jörg Oehlmann, “Endocrine Disruptors in Bottled Mineral Water: Total Estrogenic Burden and Migration from Plastic Bottles,” Environmental Science & Pollution Research, March 10, 2009. Research from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, is apparently the first to find consistent contamination from PET bottles, once thought to be a better alternative to plastic bottles containing bisphenol A. The researchers have been unable to identify the substance causing the hormonal activity in exposed snails, but PET evidently contains minute amounts of antimony, which does have estrogenic effects. Mollusks cultured in PET bottles apparently exhibited significantly increased reproductive output. A news source indicates that the study authors are concerned about their findings because…
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently published two op-ed pieces claiming that high-density pig farms have contributed to an increase in methiciliin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in rural communities. A March 12, 2009, article titled “Our Pigs, Our Food, Our Health” examines the case of a family physician in northwestern Indiana, where patients reportedly began contracting MRSA at unusually high rates. Although the doctor suspected that the town’s hog farms were linked to the outbreak, he died of a heart attack or aneurysm—possibly the result of his own exposure to MRSA—before concluding his investigation. Yet, Kristof notes that other researchers have documented cases of people developing or carrying MRSA after working on pig farms. He points to a University of Iowa study that apparently found MRSA in 45 percent of pig farmers and 49 percent of pigs tested for the disease. “The larger question is whether we as a nation have…
