Food Law Prof Blog

ABA Section of Business Law: Food and The Law

The May/June 2009 issue of Business Law Today (the magazine of the ABA business law section), is all about Food!  Here's the Food portion of the table of contents for the online version (slightly different from the print edition):

Features

• Le menu
  Steven O. Weise -- The UCC and food
  
• A trip around the food law world
  Christine M. Castellano -- Introducing new food products in the global marketplace
  
• The sparkling wine war
  Carol Robertson -- Pitting trademark rights against geographic indications
  
• Advertising food products
  Timothy S. Ernst -- Understanding the regulatory mix
  
• Seeing red over "green"
  Ricardo Carvajal and Riette van Laack -- The fight over "organic," "natural," and "sustainable"
  
• Proposition 65 and food
  Jennifer Yu Sacro -- You have now been warned
  
• 75 years after Prohibition
  Susan Cagann and Rick Van Duzer -- The regulatory hangover remains

Marler will pay Michael Pollan's speaking fee

Bill Marler has offered to pay Michael Pollan's speaking fee at Marler's alma mater, Washington State University, and the university has accepted Marler's offer.

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

In the recent case of Washington State University’s dropping Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma as its “common reading” selection for the year, two rationales emerged: University officials said the reasons had to do with the institution’s dire budget outlook — there was just no money to bring in a big-name author like Mr. Pollan, they said. Meanwhile, some faculty members and others said the book was dropped because it attacks one of the university’s bases, Big Agriculture.

Well, Bill Marler, a Seattle-based personal-injury lawyer who specializes in food-poisoning cases and who has become something of a food-safety advocate, is throwing down the gauntlet. “Hey, Michael Pollan, I’ll pay your way to Pullman,” Mr. Marler, a Washington State alumnus, writes on his blog. “I have my checkbook ready.”

 Marlerblog:

I knew it was the economic pressures that public education is facing and not any political pressure that caused the change in the reading of Omnivore's Dilemma and Michael Pollan's visit to Pullman.  The WSU I graduated from and served, would not bend to that kind of small mindlessness.  As I said to a reporter:

“I certainly understand the financial problems that WSU and other colleges and universities are facing,” said Marler, an attorney from Bainbridge Island. “However, I also thought it would be important for the public to understand that Washington State University views freedom of speech and academic expression as something that is truly fundamental to its mission. I am pleased I could help in this regard.”

When is breakfast cereal a "drug"? When it's Cheerios

General Mills, maker of Cheerios, received a letter from the FDA yesterday warning that the health claims about fiber and heart disease on Cheerios boxes are unauthorized and make the cereal into a "drug." The claims about  fiber show that the product is "intended for use in the prevention, mitigation, or treatment of a disease." 

Some Cheerios boxes say "You can lower cholesterol 4% in 6 weeks."

The letter also states that the Cheerios website is treated part of its labeling because the URL is printed on the box, and the website says "Heart-healthy diets rich in whole grain foods can reduce the risk of heart disease." This statement is not an authorized health claim.

Here are some of the requirements for "qualified health claims" regarding fiber and coronary heart disease from 21 CFR 101.77(c)(2)(i):

(A) The claim states that diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol and high in fruits, vegetables, and grain products that contain fiber may or might reduce the risk of heart disease;

(B) In specifying the disease, the claim uses the following terms: heart disease or coronary heart disease;

(C) The claim is limited to those fruits, vegetables, and grains that contain fiber;

(D) In specifying the dietary fiber, the claim uses the term fiber, dietary fiber, some types of dietary fiber, some dietary fibers, or some fibers; the term soluble fiber may be used in addition to these terms;

(E) In specifying the fat component, the claim uses the terms saturated fat and cholesterol; and

(F) The claim indicates that development of heart disease depends on many factors; and

(G) The claim does not attribute any degree of risk reduction for coronary heart disease to diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol and high in fruits, vegetables, and grain products that contain fiber.