Category: Issue 420
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New Report Urges Food Industry to Assess Nanomaterial Risks
The nonprofit group As You Sow has issued a report calling on the food industry to evaluate the safety of nanomaterials used in food packaging. Titled “Sourcing Framework for Food and Food Packaging Products Containing Nanomaterials,” the report claims that better communication is needed between food companies and their suppliers to “protect themselves from financial…
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McDonald’s Sidesteps San Francisco Toy Ban, Will Appeal $1.8 Million Brazilian Fine
McDonald’s Corp. has reportedly responded to a San Francisco ban on giving away toys with its Happy Meals® by allowing parents to purchase the toys with a 10-cent charitable contribution when they buy a Happy Meal®. While the toy purchase is purportedly a separate transaction that complies with the new ordinance, it will still require…
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CSPI Updates FDA on Mycoprotein Findings
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) recently issued a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to update the agency on its findings about mycoprotein, a meat-substitute marketed under the brand name Quorn. Following up on a 2002 campaign, the latest initiative claims that the RNA-reduced mold Fusarium venenatum used to…
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EWG Report Criticizes Sugar Content of Children’s Cereals
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has issued a December 2011 report claiming that many popular cereal brands marketed to children contain “just as much sugar as a dessert—or more.” After reviewing 84 popular brands, the report’s authors alleged that three out of four cereals failed “to meet the federal government’s proposed voluntary guidelines for food…
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Glenn Lammi, “Food Lawsuits Claiming ‘Addiction’ Coming to a Courtroom Near You?,” Legal Pulse, December 6, 2011
Glenn Lammi, chief counsel for the Washington Legal Foundation’s Legal Studies Division, has published an article suggesting that if “regulation-by-litigation practitioners” can convince the public and policymakers that “certain foods or substances in foods are ‘addictive,’” lawsuits against food companies are sure to follow. Lammi discusses a November 27 “60 Minutes” report in which a…
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Court Dismisses Challenge to OEHHA’s Listing of 4-MEI as Carcinogen Under Prop. 65
A California court has determined that California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) complied with the law in determining that 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI), a chemical present in many common foods and beverages, is a carcinogen known to the state to cause cancer. Cal. League of Food Processors v. OEHHA, No. 34-2011-80000784 (Cal. Super. Ct.,…
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Chicken Chain Claims “Eat More Kale” Infringes Its Trademark
After Vermont-based folk artist Bo Muller-Moore decided to apply for a federal trademark to protect his “Eat More Kale” T-shirt design, fast food chain Chick-fil-A reportedly accused him of infringing its “Eat Mor Chikin” trademark. The kale design has apparently caught on with consumers, who pay $25 each for the T-shirts and have purchased a sufficient…
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Putative Class Contends One-Cup Coffee Cartridges Are Not Fresh Ground
A New Mexico resident has filed a putative statewide class action in federal court claiming that a company which makes one-cup coffee cartridges for Keurig® single-serve coffee machines falsely labels and markets its cartridges as fresh coffee when they are actually filled with instant coffee. Bracewell v. Sturm Foods, Inc., No. 11-01024 (D.N.M., filed November…