Category: Issue 369
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Studies Examine U.S. Salt Intake over 50 Years, Iodine Deficiency
A recent study has reportedly claimed that dietary salt intake has remained constant in the U.S. population for the past five decades, raising questions about government efforts to restrict sodium consumption. Adam Bernstein and Walter Willett, “Trends in 24-h urinary sodium excretion in the United States, 1957–2003: a systematic review,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,…
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Andrew Korfhage, “The Chocolate You Eat Is Likely Made by Enslaved Children,” AlterNet, October 18, 2010
“Sorry to scare you, but on Halloween much of the chocolate Americans will hand out to trick-or-treaters will be tainted by the labor of enslaved children,” writes Andrew Korfhage in this October 18, 2010, AlterNet article alleging that chocolate manufacturers have failed to eradicate child labor practices as promised. According to the author, Hershey’s and…
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New Report Tracks BPA Use by Packaged Food Companies
Green Century Capital Management, an investment advisory firm focused on environmentally responsible companies, and As You Sow, an advocacy group that promotes corporate accountability, have issued a 2010 report that ranks packaged food companies on their efforts to address bisphenol A (BPA). Building on a previous effort published in April 2009, Seeking Safer Packaging 2010…
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Corporate Watchdog Targets Fast Food Industry
Corporate Accountability International Deputy Director Leslie Samuelrich contends in a recent AlterNet article that fast food companies “spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year marketing a dangerous product to America’s children.” She claims the companies deny putting children at risk and, instead, blame parents for their children’s obesity problems. According to Samuelrich, nonprofits and…
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Court Excludes Experts Linking Personal Injury to Antibiotic in Horse Feed
An appeals court in New Mexico has affirmed a trial court’s decision to dismiss claims that a horse rancher’s family became ill as a result of exposure to horse feed containing an antibiotic toxic to horses. Parkhill v. Alderman-Cave Milling & Grain Co., No. 29,120 (N. M. Ct. App., decided October 6, 2010). The parties settled…
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Stay in Snapple “Natural” Beverage Lawsuit Extinguished
A federal court in New Jersey has granted the defendant’s unopposed motion to extinguish the stay in a lawsuit contending that Snapple beverage products are falsely advertised as “natural” because they contain high-fructose corn syrup, a purportedly non-natural ingredient. Holk v. Snapple Beverage Corp., No. 07-3018 (D.N.J., decided October 15, 2010) (unpublished). The court had stayed the…
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Claims Narrowed in Chewy Bars® Trans Fat Class Action
A federal court in California has dismissed on preemption and standing grounds a number of state-law claims against The Quaker Oats Co. in a lawsuit alleging that the company falsely advertises its Chewy Bars® as containing “0 grams trans fat” when the ingredient list labeling includes hydrogenated vegetable oil. Chacanaca v. The Quaker Oats Co.,…