Category: Issue 727
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House Passes Cannabis Banking Bill
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the SAFE Banking Act, which allows financial-service firms to work with “cannabis-related legitimate businesses and service providers,” providing protection from federal prosecution for banks in states that have legalized cannabis. The bill, introduced by Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), has been sent to the Senate. In its press release…
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Guidance on Antimicrobials in Animals Released
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has released guidance on the use of “medically important antimicrobials” in “food-producing animals.” The guidance describes a voluntary process that “will help ensure new animal drugs containing antimicrobials of human importance are administered only under veterinary oversight and only for therapeutic uses.” The agency will accept comments on the…
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WHO Releases Report on E. Coli
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) have released a report on Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) and the foods that tend to host it. Researchers analyzed data from foodborne outbreak investigations globally, finding 957 outbreaks in 27 countries. The data identified that 16% of outbreaks were…
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Meatpacking Executives Plead Guilty to Selling Adulterated Beef
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced that two executives of a meatpacking plant pleaded guilty to selling 775,000 pounds of adulterated meat—”including whole cow hearts labeled as ‘ground beef’”— for more than $1 million to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The executives’ company, West Texas Provisions, falsely marketed its products as inspected by…
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Company Misleads on CBD Content, Consumer Alleges
A consumer has filed a putative class action alleging that the labels of Global Widget’s products containing cannabidiol (CBD), including gummies, lollipops and syrup, do not identify an accurate amount of CBD in the products. Ahumada v. Global Widget LLC, No. 12005 (D. Mass., filed September 24, 2019). “Defendant makes numerous false and misleading claims…
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More Vanilla Challenges Filed
A plaintiff’s attorney firm has filed three putative class actions in New York federal court alleging that products marketed as “vanilla” are misleading consumers by implying that the products contain vanilla rather than vanilla flavoring. A lawsuit targeting Califia Farms’ Vanilla and Unsweetened Vanilla varieties of almondmilk asserts that the “front labels represent that the…
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Red Meat Review Finds Alternate Conclusions on Health Effects
Researchers have published a review of studies evaluating the effects of “reducing red meat intake on clinically important outcomes” and purportedly showed that red meat may not have the carcinogenic effects that previous studies have found. Zeraatkar et al., “Effect of Lower Versus Higher Red Meat Intake on Cardiometabolic and Cancer Outcomes: A Systematic Review…
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Study Purportedly Finds Tea Bags Release Micro- and Nanoplastics
Researchers from McGill University examining the effects of plastic teabags have reportedly found that a teabag, when steeped at 95 degrees Celsius, can release “approximately 11.6 billion microplastics and 3.1 billion nanoplastics into a single cup of the beverage.” Hernandez et al., “Plastic Teabags Release Billions of Microparticles and Nanoparticles into Tea,” Envtl. Sci. &…