Category: Other Developments
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Cornucopia Institute Claims “Natural” Is Often Meaningless Marketing Hype
The Cornucopia Institute has published a report titled “Cereal Crimes: How ‘Natural’ Claims Deceive Consumers and Undermine the Organic Label—A Look Down the Cereal and Granola Aisle.” Noting that, with one exception, no government agency has defined what the term “natural” means on food packages, the organization explains how companies that make cereal products exploit…
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Manufacturer Recalls 400 Tons of Soy Flour over Salmonella Concerns
Thumb Oilseed Producers’ Cooperative has reportedly recalled nearly 400 tons of soybean flour and soy meal used in human food and animal feed due to possible Salmonella contamination. According to a press release posted on the Food and Drug Administration’s website, “[t]he recalled soybean flour and meal was distributed to a limited group of wholesale customers”…
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“Pinkwashing” on Advocacy Organization’s Agenda
According to a Citizens for Health alert, certain food companies are engaging in what the advocacy organization characterizes as “pinkwashing,” that is, supporting breast cancer action and initiatives while making and selling products purportedly posing cancer risks. The alert is based on an article recently appearing in Marie Claire. Titled “The Big Business of Breast…
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Center for Food Safety Petitions FDA for GE Food Labels
The Center for Food Safety (CFS) has filed a legal petition on behalf of the “Just Label It” campaign with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), “demanding that the agency require the labeling of all food produced using genetic engineering [GE].” Representing health-care, consumer, agricultural, and environmental organizations, the campaign has urged the public to…
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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,…