Category: Other Developments
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EWG Report Focuses on “Superbugs in Supermarkets”
According to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis, more than one-half of meat and poultry samples tested in 2011 contained antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Using findings from the federal government’s National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System, the report asserts that “store-bought meat tested in 2011 contained antibiotic-resistant bacteria in 81 percent of raw ground turkey, 69 percent of raw…
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Vermont AG Signals Interest in Food Marketing to Kids
Vermont Attorney General (AG) Bill Sorrell will reportedly join other state AGs for a conference on “the current state of food industry marketing to kids,” scheduled for May 2013 at Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. After introducing a Dartmouth College pediatrics professor to the Vermont House Committee on Health Care to…
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Researchers Claim Filtering Process Adds Arsenic to Beer
Scientists presenting at the National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society have reportedly identified elevated levels of arsenic in some beers sold in Germany. According to Mehmet Coelhan, who conducted the study of 140 beers as part of a monitoring program, “the discovery could be of importance for breweries and other food processors…
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Advocacy Groups Urge Retailers to Consider Placement and Advertising of “Sugar” Drinks
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), other advocacy groups and local public health officials have sent letters to the CEOs of supermarkets and pharmacies urging them to “encourage customers to purchase healthier, no- and low-calorie drinks in place of higher calorie sugar drinks to improve customers’ health, as well as boost [their]…
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“Fast Food Forward” Stages Second Strike in Six Months
Fast Food Forward has apparently coordinated its second strike in six months as part of its long-term effort to unionize fast-food employees in New York City. According to media sources, hundreds of workers employed by approximately 65 fast-food restaurants throughout New York City walked off the job on April 4, 2013, to show support for…
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EC-Funded Research Suggests Approach to Insuring Nanomaterial Production Risk
In a Nature Nanotechnology commentary titled “The insurability of nanomaterial product risk,” business and scientific researchers funded by the European Commission (EC) propose a framework for the insurance industry to assess risks for purposes of issuing policies that will ensure the “commercial viability and long-term sustainability” of the nanotechnology industry. Noting that Lloyd’s of London…
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Rudd Center Report Focuses on Children’s Food and Beverage Marketing
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity has issued a March 2013 report highlighting “where children and adolescents viewed the food and beverage advertisements they saw on television in 2011.” Using Nielsen data, the Rudd Center apparently sought to quantify “the average number of food and beverage TV ads viewed by age group…
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Coalition Urges USDA to Adopt COOL Rules
A coalition of more than 200 farm, consumer and environmental organizations has written a letter urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support recently proposed changes to U.S. Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements for meat products. USDA proposed new labeling rules in March 2013 in response to a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling…