Food & Drug Law Prof Blog

Kellogg's discontinues cereal box "Immunity" claims

Kellogg has announced that it will stop using the big banner on the Cocoa Krispies proclaiming that the cereal "helps support your child's immunity." 

Here's a November 5, 2009, article from the Wall Street Journal:
Kellogg: Rice Krispies Won’t Protect Your Kid From Swine Flu

And here's the Kellogg's Press Release

Now that you've eaten your turkey: Poison-free Poultry Act of 2009

A bill introduced Wednesday would ban the use of arsenic-containing poultry feed. Read about it on Food Safety News:

U.S. Representative Steve Israel (D-NY) introduced legislation Wednesday to ban the use of the an arsenical compound used in animal production.

The Poison-Free Poultry Act of 2009, or H.R. 3624, would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to ban roxarsone, an arsenical antimicrobial drug used to ward off infection in industrial swine and poultry production.

 

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The bill itself is available here: HR 3624

FDA Seeks Permanent Injunction Against Sharkco Seafood International Inc.

FDA News Release:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking a permanent injunction against Sharkco Seafood International Inc., located in Venice, La. The injunction is intended to stop the seafood processing company from distributing scombrotoxin-forming fish in interstate commerce. Consumption of scombrotoxin-forming fish that are not properly preserved or refrigeratedcan result in scombroid food poisoning, a foodborne illness that results from eating spoiled or decayed fish. Scombrotoxin-forming fish most commonly include mackerel, sardines, tuna, bluefish, and mahi mahi.

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USDA Report Reveals Highest Rate Of Food Insecurity Since Report Was Initiated In 1995

USDA News Release, Nov. 16, 2009:

USDA's Economic Research Service's (ERS) today released its annual report on Household Food Security in the U.S., which revealed that in 2008, 17 million households, or 14.6 percent, were food insecure and families had difficulty putting enough food on the table at times during the year. This is an increase from 13 million households, or 11.1 percent, in 2007. The 2008 figures represent the highest level observed since nationally representative food security surveys were initiated in 1995.

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Cargill Canola Stopped at Border (from Food Safety News)

Cargill Canola Stopped At Border By FDA

by Dan Flynn | Nov 17, 2009

It is not too far-fetched to say that trainloads of canola oil manufactured at Cargill Limited's seed processing facility at Clavet, Saskatchewan are being turned back at the border by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

October's "import refusal report" by FDA shows three Cargill canola oil shipments being turned back on Oct. 12 and then another 14 shipments via the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad being stopped on Oct. 30.  It was to be used for animal feed in the U.S.

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Click on the link to keep reading.  The canola was refused because of possible Salmonella contamination.  This caught my eye because I was on a panel on Importation issues just last month for the Minnesota State Bar Association Food and Drug Law Section. 

FDA and Oyster Policy (from Food Safety News)

From Food Safety News:

Caving under the weight of a political firestorm over its proposed rule to reduce Vibrio vulnificus poisoning from raw oysters, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced yesterday it is putting the proposal on hold to "further examine" the rule and its impact on the oyster industry.

Last month, the FDA announced its intention to begin requiring the processing of raw oysters during summer months to limit the risk of Vibrio vulnificis, a deadly bacterium naturally pervasive in Gulf Coast waters during summer months. The rule was expected to take effect in 2011.

 

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And just in case this makes you think of Lewis Carroll, here is The Walrus and the Carpenter.

The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright--
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.

The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done--
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun!"

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FDA Issues 2009 FDA Food Code

The FDA released the 2009 FDA Food Code last week.  Here's an excerpt from the Press Announcement:

The 2009 edition of the Food Code is the seventh full edition published by the FDA. The previous full edition was released in 2005 with a supplement published in 2007.

Significant enhancements to the 2009 FDA Food Code include:

• Each provision in the FDA Food Code is now designated as a “Priority Item,” a “Priority Foundation Item,” or a “Core Item,” to assist the industry and regulatory community in prioritizing their food safety interventions and their inspections.  These designations are based on a qualitative risk assessment and replace the use of “Critical” and “Non-Critical” designations in previous editions of the FDA Food Code. 
• Cut leafy greens are now included among the foods that require time and temperature control for safety and a new supporting reference document, “Recommendations to Food Establishments for Serving or Selling Cut Leafy Greens,” is summarized in Annex 2.
  
• Requirements are added to improve food worker awareness of food allergen concerns in the food service and retail setting.
  
• Serving hamburgers and other ground meats in an undercooked form upon a consumer’s request is no longer an option for items offered on a children’s menu.
  
• A new definition and criteria are added in a new FDA Food Code section for the non-continuous cooking of foods comprised of raw animal products to address the safety of this cooking method.
  
• Several requirements related to the effective cleaning and sanitizing of equipment and surfaces are enhanced or clarified.

Here's the Code itself: FDA 2009 Food Code

FDA/CFSAN: New Report Recommends Enhanced Food Tracing Guidelines

From an FDA Press Announcement (Nov 14, 2009):

The Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) today released a report from the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), which recommends clear objectives be set for all users of a simpler, globally accepted food supply chain that can benefit from existing commercial systems.

CFSAN commissioned the IFT report in 2008 as part of the agency's ongoing examination of food product tracing practices, and its commitment to improve the ability of government and industry to trace commercially distributed food products potentially of risk to U.S. consumers. The IFT is a nonprofit scientific society focusing on the science of food.

Food can become contaminated at many different steps in the supply chain. Experience in conducting foodborne disease outbreak investigations suggests that improved product tracing abilities could help identify products associated with disease more quickly, get risky products off the market faster, and reduce the number of illnesses associated with foodborne illness outbreaks.

Read more of the FDA Press Announcement

Read IFT's own discussion of the study: Tactics for Improving Food Product Traceability

I am a member of the Institute of Food Technologists.  It does indeed focus on the science of food, primarily of course, the science of processed foods, but it also focuses very much on the marketing of processed foods. The monthly magazine, Food Technology, is beautiful and fascinating.

FDA Warning Letters to Caffeinated Alcohol drink makers

From the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration is taking aim at caffeinated alcoholic drinks, saying it will pull them off the market unless manufacturers can prove the beverages are safe to drink.

On Friday, the FDA sent letters to nearly 30 companies, giving them 30 days to provide evidence that their drinks don't pose health or safety risks.

The FDA hasn't approved the use of caffeine in alcoholic beverages, and companies might have to show that experts generally think mixing caffeine and alcohol is safe for consumers.

Comments posted on the WSJ website ask whether this will make it illegal to serve rum and Coke, Irish coffee, or black/white Russians.

The FDA Press Announcement

Country of Origing Labeling -- Protectionism? Canada thinks so

From the New York Times (Oct. 12, 2009 -- still worth posting):

Canada Seeks Redress on Food-Labeling Law

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS

Ratcheting up a trade dispute with the Obama administration, Canada is asking the World Trade Organization to rule against an American food-labeling law that it claims is helping to destroy much of its hog-farming industry.

The dispute concerns an American rule requiring that food products be labeled by country of origin. The Obama administration denies that the labeling policy is an act of protectionism, even though it is driving American pork producers to decrease purchases of Canadian hogs, traditionally about 7 percent of the pork consumed in the United States.

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FDA Grants to Further Food and Feed Safety

FDA New Release, Oct. 9, 2009:

FDA Awards $17.5 Million in Grants to Further Food and Feed Safety

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that it has awarded 83 grants in FY2009 totaling $17.5 million to state and local regulatory agencies to boost food and feed safety initiatives among federal, state, and local partners.

The grants fund major cooperative agreements in four major areas: response, intervention, innovation and prevention.

"These cooperative agreements support and enhance local food safety efforts," said Michael Chappell, the FDA's acting associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. "The grants are another step in the FDA’s continuing efforts to build an integrated food safety system between federal, state, and local partners."

The grants and their recipients include:  (Click here to go to the FDA website to read the rest.)

Import Safety: Regulatory Governance in the Global Economy

I was a member of a panel on Food Imports a couple weeks.  I wish I had read this book first.  The blurb below is from the publisher.  I haven't read the book yet, but it's on my must read list. -- DMB

 Edited by Cary Coglianese, Adam M. Finkel, and David Zaring

224 pages | 6 x 9 | 20 illus.
Cloth Dec 2009 | ISBN 978-0-8122-4222-5 | $42.50s | £28.00 | Add to shopping cart

On World Food Day in October 2008, former president Bill Clinton finally accepted decade-old criticism directed at his administration's pursuit of free-trade deals with little regard for food safety, child labor, or workers' rights. "We all blew it, including me when I was president. We blew it. We were wrong to believe that food was like some other product in international trade." Clinton's public admission came at a time when consumers in the United States were hearing unsettling stories about contaminated food, toys, and medical products from China, and the first real calls were being made for more regulation of imported products. Import Safety comes at a moment when public interest is engaged with the subject and the government is receptive to the idea of consumer protections that were not instituted when many of the Clinton era's free-trade pacts were drafted.

Written by leading scholars and analysts, the chapters in Import Safety provide background and policy guidance on improving consumer safety in imported food, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and toys and other products aimed at children. Together, they consider whether policymakers should approach import safety issues through better funding of traditional interventions—such as regulatory oversight and product liability—or whether this problem poses a different kind of governance challenge, requiring wholly new methods

Cary Coglianese is Associate Dean of Penn Law, Edward B. Shils Professor of Law, Professor of Political Science, and Director of the Penn Program on Regulation at the University of Pennsylvania. Adam M. Finkel is Fellow and Executive Director of the Penn Program on Regulation at the University of Pennsylvania. David Zaring, also with the Penn Program on Regulation, is Assistant Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Ariana R. Levinson, Lawyers as Problem-Solvers One Meal at a Time: A Review of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Ariana R. Levinson (Louisville) has published Lawyers as Problem-Solvers One Meal at a Time: A Review of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, 15 Widener Law Review 289 (2009).

Abstract from SSRN: 

Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life is a must-read for lawyers and legal scholars in the areas of food law, environmental law, agricultural law, and education law. Indeed, I recommend it to anyone interested in the future of the planet or our children. The over-arching point of Kingsolver's book is that Americans should eat more locally-grown food. Kingsolver's position is that eating locally-grown food promises to be part of the solution to several of the major problems facing us at the start of the 21st century, such as global warming and childhood obesity. Many of the issues that Kingsolver addresses are legal ones, and many of the implications of her arguments also bear on legal topics. This review discusses the legal issues raised by the book and provides annotation to relevant legal articles, including articles on increasing opportunities for food production in local economies; global warming; childhood obesity; the Federal Farm Bill; the Plant Variety Protection Act of 1970; pesticide pollution and loss of wildlife habitat; lawsuits involving patented plant varieties; laws and regulations related to genetically modified foods; labeling laws governing Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin Hormone; proposals to reduce the public health risks of mad cow disease in the United States; green zoning; local ordinances governing community gardening; elimination of the regulatory quota system for tobacco; and the National Animal Identification System.