Food & Beverage Litigation & Regulatory Update

Category: Other Developments

  • CSPI Issues 2013 “Xtreme Eating” Report

    The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has released its 2013 “Xtreme Eating” report, which singled out restaurant foods that are allegedly laden with excessive calories, fat and sodium. Claiming that some restaurants seem to “scientifically engineer[] these extreme meals with the express purpose of promoting obesity, diabetes, and heart disease,” the report…

  • NEJM Publishes Results of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Poll

    The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) has published the results of a recent poll asking readers whether governments should regulate sugar-sweetened beverages. After presenting two arguments for and against government regulation, the poll received 1,290 votes from readers in 75 countries, with 68 percent of voters favoring “regulation of sugar-sweetened beverages to help reduce…

  • Activists Seek Lower Ractopamine Limits in Meat

    The Center for Food Safety (CFS) and the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) are petitioning the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for an immediate reduction in the allowable levels of ractopamine—a controversial drug used to boost growth and leanness in meat production—and to study the drug’s potential effects on human health and animal welfare.…

  • NAD to Investigate 5-Hour Energy® Claims Highlighted in NYT Report

    The Council of Better Business Bureaus’ National Advertising Division (NAD) has reportedly decided to review “no crash later” claims made by Living Essentials LLC about its caffeinated energy supplement 5-Hour Energy® after The New York Times published a January 2, 2013, article questioning the scientific evidence behind such assertions. According to media sources, NAD ruled in…

  • Why We Get Fat Author Launches Initiative to Investigate New Research on Obesity

    Science Writer Gary Taubes, who authored Why We Get Fat, writes in Nature magazine that obesity is not a matter of energy in-energy out, but is rather a “hormonal, regulatory defect.” In his December 13, 2012, article titled “Treat obesity as physiology, not physics,” Taubes bases this conclusion on endocrinology and calls for better research…

  • R-CALF Raises Concerns over Mad Cow Disease in Brazil

    The Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund (R-CALF USA) sent a December 10, 2012, letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requesting the immediate suspension of imports of ruminants and ruminant products from Brazil after the country notified the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) about a confirmed case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) detected in…

  • Danish Councils Establish Database to Identify Products Containing Nanomaterials

    The Danish Consumer Council and Danish Ecological Council, in conjunction with the Department of Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark, have reportedly developed a database intended to help consumers identify products that may contain nanomaterials. The database evidently includes a description of each nanotechnology involved; rates of purported exposure risks to professional end-users,…

  • Food Fight for Nickelodeon

    In the ongoing battle over whether the government should regulate food ads targeting children, the Food Marketing Workgroup (FMW), a coalition of more than 80 health groups and nutritionists, is putting pressure on Nickelodeon and its parent company, Viacom, to adopt nutrition guidelines for foods marketed to children, particularly foods that license Nickelodeon characters such…