Category: Issue 411
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Citizens for Health Launches Food Labeling Website, March on D.C.
The consumer group Citizens for Health has launched a website, FoodIdentityTheft.com, change of High Fructose Corn Syrup” and urges readers to contact federal agencies to oppose relabeling the ingredient “corn sugar.” The site also targets tomato sauces advertised as using “only the finest tomatoes” and blueberry-flavored products that allegedly contain “absolutely no blueberries.” “Many consumers…
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Nutritionists Urge USDA to Reconsider Food Stamp Test
Two nutritionists have published commentary in the September 2011 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that calls for the federal government to revisit a ban on using food stamps to purchase sugar-sweetened beverages. Authored by Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity Director Kelly Brownell and Harvard School of Public Health…
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Food & Water Watch Report Critical of GE Products
A new Food & Water Watch report claims that the “genetic engineering [GE] of crops and animals for human consumption is not the silver bullet approach for feeding a growing population that the agribusiness and biotechnology industries claim it is. Conversely, studies find that GE plants and animals do not perform better than their traditional…
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PHAI Publishes Materials to Support Suits Against Companies Marketing Food to Children
Cara Wilking, a Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) staff attorney, has authored an issue brief intended to provide a legal foundation for consumer protection lawsuits against food companies that advertise “unhealthy food and beverage products” to children in a manner that she describes as “pester power” marketing. She explains that such marketing “targets children who,…
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EU Court of Justice Allows Concurrent Use of Budweiser Trademark in the UK
The European Union Court of Justice has determined that Anheuser-Busch and Czech competitor Budejovicky Budvar may both use the Budweiser trademark in the United Kingdom. Budejovicky Budvar v. Anheuser-Busch Inc., No. C-482/09 (ECJ Sept. 22, 2011). Emphasizing the exceptional circumstances of the case, the court found that because the companies used the marks in good faith…
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Del Monte Dismisses Lawsuit Seeking to Lift Cantaloupe Import Restrictions
Del Monte Fresh Produce N.A. has filed a notice of dismissal in a Maryland federal court after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agreed to lift the import alert it imposed on cantaloupes from Guatemala that had purportedly been linked to a Salmonella outbreak. Del Monte Fresh Produce N.A., Inc. v. United States, No. 11-2338…
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Trade Groups and Dairy Coops Accused of Slaughtering Cows to Keep Milk Prices High
According to a news source, two antitrust lawsuits were filed in a California federal court this week alleging that dairy trade groups and coops manipulated dairy prices between 2003 and 2010 under a program that slaughtered more than 500,000 cows. The suits reportedly allege that the National Milk Producers Federation and major dairy farmer cooperatives,…
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Texan Claims Naked Juice Is Not All Juice and Contains GMOs and Unnatural Ingredients
A Texas resident has filed a putative nationwide class action against the Naked Juice Co., alleging that its “100% Juice,” “100% Fruit,” “All Natural,” and “non-GMO” beverage products are falsely labeled because they contain synthetic and genetically modified (GM) ingredients. Sandys v. Naked Juice Co., No. 11-8007 (C.D. Cal., filed September 27, 2011). The complaint claims…