Category: Other Developments
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Precautionary Principle Focus of Upcoming TACD Forum
London-based Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD), a collaborative group of U.S. and E.U. consumer organizations that develops and submits joint consumer policy recommendations to the U.S. government and European Union, is hosting a January 26, 2016, meeting in Brussels, Belgium, focusing on use of the precautionary principle in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Discussions…
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Italian Police Investigate Alleged Olive Oil Fraud
Police in Turin, Italy, are reportedly investigating seven companies, including Bertolli, Carapelli and Santa Sabina—for allegedly selling “Extra Virgin” olive oils (EVOOs) that fail to meet EU standards to be labeled as such. The investigation was reportedly launched after consumer magazine Il Test notified the police of its taste-test results. The police then hired the…
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Advocacy Group Allleges Much “Wild” Salmon Is Mislabeled
Conservationist group Oceana has issued a report purportedly finding that 43 percent of salmon samples purchased from U.S. restaurants and grocery stores were mislabeled. As a follow-up to a larger study, Oceana researchers DNA tested 82 salmon samples and compared them to the names under which restaurants and grocers sold them. Of the 32 salmon…
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The Lancet Launches Multidisciplinary Obesity Commission
U.K. medical journal The Lancet has announced establishment of a Commission on Obesity “to provide a multidisciplinary platform to contribute to accounting systems for action and to critically analyze the systemic drivers of, and solutions for, obesity.” The 22-member commission is a partnership among The Lancet, University of Auckland, George Washington University, and World Obesity Foundation.…
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“Soda Politics” Reaps Accolades in Journal Review
“If any one name evokes unfettered truths about the sociopolitical machinations of ‘Big Food,’ it is that of Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University,” proclaims physician David Katz in a review of Nestle’s new book, Soda Politics: Taking on Big Soda (and Winning). “Dominions of fizz,” Nature, October 1,…
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Proposed Prop. 65 Changes Aim for Transparency in Penalty Payments
California Attorney General Kamala Harris has proposed amendments to the state’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Prop. 65) that would require increased transparency and accountability in how the penalties paid by companies are spent by consumer groups, environmental organizations and other private enforcers of the law. In 2014, Prop. 65 actions…
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NYC Food Policy Center to Target Industry Messaging in Breakfast Seminar
The New York City Food Policy Center at Hunter College has organized an October 7, 2015, program featuring Jim Kreiger, executive director of Seattle’s Action for Healthy Food, and Marlene Schwartz, director of the University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, in a conversation about ways to challenge the “harmful effects of…
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Former NYC Health Commissioner Pens Viewpoint on Media’s Role in Altering Consumer Behaviors
Former New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Farley, who now leads The Public Good Projects, has authored a viewpoint in JAMA Internal Medicine that encourages the use of mass media advertising to promote healthy behaviors. Titled “Mass Diseases, Mass Exposures, and Mass Media,” the article highlights the success of mass media campaigns aimed at smoking…