The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has filed a citizen petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) seeking a declaration that four antibiotic-resistant (ABR) strains of Salmonella are adulterants under federal law. This is CSPI’s second petition on the matter and attempts to respond to data gaps identified by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) when it denied the consumer advocacy organization’s 2011 petition in July 2014. Details about the denial appear in Issue 532 of this Update. CSPI bolsters the first petition with additional information on ABR Salmonella outbreaks, including numbers of individuals sickened and types of antibiotics to which the infections were resistant. CSPI also emphasizes that FSIS has already been declaring these pathogens adulterants on a case-by-case basis in issuing certain recalls, but its inconsistency in this regard, in CPSI’s view, is “putting consumers at risk.” While CSPI argues that its first petition…
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has denied the May 2011 petition filed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) seeking an interpretive rule declaring certain antibiotic-resistant (ABR) strains of Salmonella to be adulterants when found in raw ground meat and raw ground poultry. Additional information about the petition appears in Issue 396 of this Update. CSPI also asked the agency “to ensure adequate sampling and testing for these pathogens and to remove contaminated ground meat and ground poultry products from the human food supply.” FSIS essentially found insufficient data to distinguish ABR Salmonella strains from other Salmonella strains that are susceptible to antibiotics and thus stated that additional data on the characteristics of ABR Salmonella are needed to determine whether the strains identified in the petition “could qualify as adulterants under the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) (21 U.S.C. 601…
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and Mercury Policy Project have sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), seeking a declaration that the agency’s delay in responding to their citizen petition on labeling fish with high levels of mercury is unreasonable and violates the Administrative Procedure Act and Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. CSPI v. FDA, No. 14-0375 (D.D.C., filed March 10, 2014). Further details about the petition, which seeks labeling on seafood packaging and point-of-purchase signage, appear in Issue 401 of this Update. The plaintiffs also seek an order compelling the agency to issue a final response by a court-imposed deadline. According to the complaint, the plaintiffs submitted the petition to FDA in July 2011 and received a tentative response from the agency beyond the 180-day limit required by FDA regulations. The plaintiffs claim that they have not received any communication from FDA since then…
U.S. Reps. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Lucille Roybal Allard (D-Calif.) have circulated a request to their colleagues that they join a letter to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Margaret Hamburg asking that the agency take action on two citizen petitions, pending before the agency for some eight years, seeking a rule that sugary beverages “carry a rotating series of health messages on their labels in order to educate consumers on the health risks of sugar overconsumption.” The first petition was filed in 2005 by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. See “Ask the FDA to Review Petitions on Sugary Beverages,” October 22, 2013.
Four years after filing a citizen petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking a prohibition on the use of partially hydrogenated oils containing artificial trans fat in food for human consumption, 98-year-old University of Illinois Emeritus Professor of Comparative Biosciences Fred Kummerow has filed a lawsuit seeking an order compelling an agency response to his petition and a declaration that its failure to ban trans fats violates the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Kummerow v. Hamburg, No. 13-2180 (C.D. Ill., filed August 9, 2013). The complaint details the history of the ingredient’s invention and research, including the plaintiff’s own, demonstrating its “harmful effects,” including inhibition of an enzyme necessary to prevent blood clots in the arteries and veins. The plaintiff also distinguishes between artificial and natural trans fats, noting that he does not seek a ban on the latter. According to the complaint, Kummerow learned in 2004…
Citizens for Health has filed a citizen’s petition with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requesting that the agency amend its high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) regulations. The requested changes would require food producers (i) using HFCS, to identify its concentration f ructose on product labels (e.g., HFCS with 42 percent fructose would be labeled “high fructose corn syrup 42”), and (ii) manipulating the mount of fructose in HFCS “to a different concentration than a standardized blend of 42 or 55,” to also incorporate the concentration into he ingredient name (e.g., HFCS with 90 percent fructose would be labeled “high fructose corn syrup 90”). Citizens for Health also asked that FDA initiate enforcement actions against food companies using HFCS with fructose in amounts other than 42 or 55 percent because these are the concentrations FDA has apparently designated as generally recognized as safe. According to the petition, numerous online articles…
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to require the disclosure of food color additives on front-of-package labeling. Citing “the ubiquity of food colorings” in the American diet, the petition claims that consumers are misled when colorings are used to either mask less-nutritious ingredients or make a product “appear to be of higher quality or nutritional value than it actually is.” The group also points to studies suggesting a link between certain food additives and behavioral effects in children. CSPI urges FDA to “amend the labeling requirements set forth at 21 C.F.R. § 101.22” to require foods containing such additives to state “Artificially Colored” “on the product display package next to the product name in bold letters not less than half the height and weight of the name of the food.” According to CSPI, FDA already possesses the statutory authority and…
A federal court has approved an agreement between the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) resolving NRDC’s complaint that the agency unreasonably delayed issuing a final decision on its petition seeking a regulation that would prohibit the use of bisphenol A (BPA) in food packaging. NRDC v. HHS, No. 11-5801 (S.D.N.Y., consent judgment filed December 7, 2011). Under the agreement, FDA will issue its final decision on or before March 31, 2012. Noting that its petition was filed three years ago, an NRDC spokesperson said, “While we are glad FDA is finally going to make a decision [on] BPA in food packaging and this is a major step forward in the legal process, it is discouraging that FDA has not responded and that we had to ask the court to intervene just to get FDA to do its job. The agency has been dragging…
The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) has written a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) supporting a legal petition that demands required labeling of all genetically engineered (GE) food. Information about the October 4, 2011, petition filed by the Center for Food Safety appear in Issue 412 of this Update. Representing nearly 300 nonprofit consumer organizations concerned with food safety, agricultural biotechnology, food and agricultural policy, and nutrition, CFA claims that current FDA regulations fail to provide consumers with information about GE food despite growing public interest in food content. “Genetically engineered foods are required to be labeled in the 15 European Union nations, Russia, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand, and many other countries around the world,” the November 23 letter states. “U.S. consumers should be provided the same basic information about GE foods as consumers in these other countries.”
The American Bakers Association and a number of other industry trade associations have submitted a citizen petition to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seeking regulations that would exempt those businesses engaged in storing packaged foods from hazard analysis and prevention controls applicable to food producers and processors. The petition notes that under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Congress allowed FDA to implement its food safety provisions “in a manner that acknowledges the difference in risk posed by various types of operations.” Claiming that “storage facilities themselves pose a very limited, if any, food safety risk,” the petition notes that any potential hazards in warehouses are already addressed through existing good manufacturing practices governing warehousing and distribution facilities. The petitioners, including the Grocery Manufacturers Association, International Bottled Water Association, and Snack Food Association, seek a rule that would state, “A facility that is engaged solely in the storage, holding,…
