Category: Issue 390
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Swedish Researchers Allegedly Find Arsenic in Baby Foods
A forthcoming study has allegedly identified “high levels” of arsenic in rice-based baby foods, as well as elevated levels of iron, molybdenum and manganese in infant formula. Karin Ljung, et al., “High concentrations of essential and toxic elements in infant formula and infant foods – A matter of concern,” Journal of Food Chemistry, August 2011. According…
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Maximillian Potter, “The Assassin in the Vineyard,” Vanity Fair, May 2011
“When Aubert de Villaine received an anonymous note, in January 2010, threatening the destruction of his priceless heritage unless he paid a one-million-euro ransom, he thought it was a sick joke,” writes Maximillian Potter in this May 2011 Vanity Fair article chronicling “an unprecedented and decidedly un-French” plan to poison the world’s most famous vineyard,…
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Chicago School Draws Fire for Ban on Homemade Lunches
A Chicago public school that six years ago prohibited most homemade lunches has recently found itself in the media spotlight, with some parents publicly questioning the policy that Little Village Academy Principal Elsa Carmona has defended as more nutritious for children. The Chicago Tribune has reported that Carmona instituted the ban after watching students bring…
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SDA-Enriched Soy Makes Splash at 2011 Experimental Biology Meeting
Researchers presenting at the 2011 Experimental Biology conference in Washington, D.C., have reportedly claimed that stearidonic acid-enriched (SDA) soybean oil is “an effective source of long-chain polyunsaturated fat in foods,” and that soy genetically engineered to produce these omega-3 fats, commonly found in fish, could be on tables as early as 2012. The panel on SDA-enriched…
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CSPI Launches “Chemical Cuisine” Mobile App Database
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has launched a mobile application of its “Chemical Cuisine” glossary of food additives to bring safety ratings directly to consumers’ smart phones. The CSPI app provides a list of safe additives and flags those “that everybody should avoid, as well as a number of additives most…
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Insurers Dispute Coverage for Food-Related Injury
Seeking a declaration about respective indemnity obligations, National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh, Pa. has filed a complaint in a California federal court against several other insurance companies in a dispute stemming from a neurological injury allegedly caused by the mahi-mahi fish served in a fish burrito at a Rubio’s Restaurant. Nat’l Union Fire…
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Fishy Seafood Labels Result in Felony and Misdemeanor Convictions
According to the Department of Justice, a Massachusetts-based fish packer has been convicted of several criminal charges for falsely labeling packages of frozen fish fillets. A federal jury in Boston found Stephen Delaney guilty of a felony violation of the Lacey Act for falsely labeling $8,000 worth of frozen pollock, a product of China, as…
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No MDL for Quaker Oats Trans Fat Lawsuits
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) has denied a request that five false advertising lawsuits pending in two federal district courts against The Quaker Oats Co. be consolidated for pretrial proceedings in Illinois. In re: Quaker Oats Trans-Fat Mktg. & Sales Practices Litig., MDL No. 2230 (J.P.M.L., decided April 8, 2011). The putative class actions…