Food & Beverage Litigation & Regulatory Update

Tag: meat

  • USDA Proposes Rule to Enhance Safety of Meat, Poultry Products

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has issued a proposed rule designed to enhance the safety of meat and poultry products. The proposal would require that regulated establishments (i) promptly notify FSIS if any unsafe, unwholesome or “misbranded meat or poultry product has entered commerce”; (ii) “prepare and maintain current…

  • Class Action Filed Against Canadian Meat Processors in Listeriosis Outbreak

    According to a news source, a putative class action has been filed against retailer Loblaw and meat processor Siena Foods Ltd. following a listeriosis outbreak that sickened a number of Canadian consumers and led to a nationwide recall of salami and prosciutto products. While one press outlet has indicated that the bacterium which sickened two…

  • FSIS Holds Meeting to Discuss E. Coli Traceability Standards

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) held a March 10, 2010, public meeting to discuss agency procedures “for identifying suppliers of source material used to produce raw beef product that FSIS has found positive for Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7.” FSIS announced the meeting as part of its ongoing efforts to…

  • California Court Declares Prop. 65 Warnings for Meat Products Preempted

    A California court of appeal recently determined that the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) preempts point-of-sale or other warning labels on meat products under Proposition 65 (Prop. 65). Am. Meat Inst. v. Leeman, No. D053325 (Cal. Ct. App., decided December 22, 2009). In 2004, Whitney Leeman notified a number of meat processors and retailers in California…

  • FSIS Proposes Labeling Rule for Single-Ingredient Meat and Poultry Products

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has published a supplemental proposed rule that would “require nutrition labeling of the major cuts of single-ingredient, raw meat and poultry products, unless an exemption applies.” FSIS proposed a similar rule in January 2001, and this notice responds to public comments already submitted and…

  • New York Daily News Guest Columnist Peter Singer Advocates Meat Tax

    A high tax on meat is needed for meat-eaters to consume less, ultimately resulting in multiple benefits to human health, animal welfare and the environment, writes Peter Singer, a Princeton University bioethics professor and author of Animal Liberation and co-author of The Ethics of What We Eat, in an October 25, 2009, guest column in the…

  • World Trade Organization COOL Initiative Blocked

    The United States has reportedly blocked Canadian and Mexican efforts to convene a World Trade Organization (WTO) panel that would determine whether the new U.S. country-of-origin (COOL) labeling requirements for meat products are fair. Under WTO procedures, a country can block the creation of a dispute settlement panel once. If, as expected, Canada and Mexico…

  • British Ad Standards Authority Puts Stop to PETA “Meat Kills” Campaign

    The U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority has reportedly banned an advertising campaign launched by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), fearing that it would cause some readers to infer that eating meat causes swine flu. The ad stated in bold letters “Meat Kills: Go Vegetarian” and contained repeating background lines of text that said,…