Food & Drug Law Prof Blog

Food, Inc., Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary, on NPR

Food, Inc., a documentary about America's food system, is up for an Oscar for best documentary.  National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation featured an interview with Director Robert Kenner today, February 23, 2010:

How much do we really know about the food we buy at the grocery store? Filmmaker Robert Kenner talks about his documentary, Food, Inc., which is up for an Oscar. The film raises questions about the safety of our food.

 TheNPR website has clips from the film.

The clip below is from YouTube.  It is not today's interview, but it gives a sense of the film:

 

General Mills reducing sugar in kids’ cereal

After much pressure from those concerned with the growing rates of childhood obesity, General Mills has announced they will follow in the footsteps of other major cereal producers by reducing the amount of sugar added to their children’s cereals.  A study conducted by Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity found a correlation between the amount of cereal children consumed and the amount of sugar in the cereal.  From an MSNBC article:

“The Rudd Center found children who ate highly sweetened cereals ate roughly twice as much as those who ate low-sugar cereals. And some say children are more susceptible to the marketing by food makers.”

Link to the study conducted by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

This post was prepared by William Mitchell College of Law student Lauren Sparks.

Michelle Obama Leads Campaign Against Obesity

President Obama signed a memorandum February 9, 2010, creating a Task Force on Childhood Obesity to support the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” campaign, aimed at ending childhood obesity in the United States within one generation. 

From the New York Times:

. . . The much-anticipated “Let’s Move’’ campaign, nearly a year in the making, marks the first lady’s official debut in a high-profile powerful policy role, and it was clear that Mrs. Obama has a broad vision for it. The White House has secured the cooperation of food industry executives, who have pledged to reduce the amount of sugar in school lunches, and beverage makers who promise to more clearly label their sugary drinks. The American Academy of Pediatrics announced that, from now on, it will encourage its members to measure the body mass index, an indicator of obesity, of their young patients.

The memorandum notes:

Nearly one third of children in America are overweight or obese -- a rate that has tripled in adolescents and more than doubled in younger children since 1980.  One third of all individuals born in the year 2000 or later will eventually suffer from diabetes over the course of their lifetime, while too many others will face chronic obesity-related health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma.  Without effective intervention, many more children will endure serious illnesses that will put a strain on our health-care system. We must act now to improve the health of our Nation's children and avoid spending billions of dollars treating preventable disease.

The President’s memorandum grants The Task Force 90 days to develop an interagency plan of action to achieve its objectives.

This post was contributed by William Mitchell College of Law student Adam Brady.

Fewer than 1% of American farms are organic

The USDA has released a survey finding fewer than 1% of all American farms are organic. From the USDA press release:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 3, 2010 – The nation’s organic farms and ranches have higher average sales and higher average production expenses than U.S. farms overall, according to results of the 2008 Organic Production Survey. . . .

“This was USDA’s first wide-scale survey of organic producers, and it was undertaken in direct response to the growing interest in organics among consumers, farmers, businesses, policymakers and others,” said Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan. “The information being released today will be an important building block for future program and policy development.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that

While organic products have been one of the hottest growing areas in the supermarket, the USDA survey found that they were still a tiny enterprise in the farm belt. . . .

This post was contributed by William Mitchell College of Law student Hiep Phung.

California Dairy Industry contributed to economic boost

In a recent study, the California Milk Advisory Board concluded that the California Dairy Industry contributed $63 billion to the state’s economy in 2008.  The dairies produced $9.9 billion worth of milk in 2008.  This amount, added to the remainder of the supply chain, equals the state’s $63 billion economic boost.

The board determined that in 2008 a single “milk cow generated $34,165 and four dairy cows equaled one job in the industry.”  The board also determined that “10 on-the-farm jobs led to 222 beyond-the-farm jobs.”  This leads to 408,500 jobs, in the state of California, being related to the dairy supply chain.

Additionally, the chief executive officer of the California Milk Advisory Board stated that California produces “21% of the milk in the country.”

This post was contributed by William Mitchell College of Law student Brian Hansen.

Scientists Create GM Tomatoes with an Extended Shelf Life

In research study published recently  in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Journal (PNAS), scientists at the National Institute of Plant Genomic Research in New Delhi, India, unveiled a tomato which has been genetically modified to extend shelf life.  The Telegraph.co.uk reported that:

  “The fruits remained firm for 45 days, three times as long as normal tomatoes which start  to wilt after just 15 days”

 “As much as 40 per cent of harvested fruit can be wasted because it ripens too quickly,  the researchers from the National Institute of Plant Genomic Research in New Delhi,  India, estimate.”

The study’s abstract in PNAS, titled Enhancement of fruit shelf life by suppressing N-glycan processing enzymes, describes the basic method of creating the genetically modified tomatoes with an enhanced shelf life:

 “We have identified and targeted two ripening-specific N-glycoprotein modifying  enzymes, α-mannosidase (α-Man) and β-D-N-acetylhexosaminidase (β-Hex). We show  that their suppression enhances fruit shelf life, owing to the reduced rate of softening.   […]  Genetic manipulation of N-glycan processing can be of strategic importance to  enhance fruit shelf life, without any negative effect on phenotype, including yield.”

The Telegraph.co.uk goes on to further discuss the implication of this research:

 “[I]t could be years before the fruits, still in the experimental stages, are available  in  Britain, if ever.  The big supermarket chains, including Tesco, have a policy against  stocking GM foods on their shelves.  GM crops, which opponents have dubbed  ‘Frankenstein food’, can also be sold in Europe only if they have passed rigorous safety  tests and European law states that GM foods have to be clearly labelled, including when  they are sold loose.”

 Link to National Institute of Plant Genomic Research in New Delhi, India.

This post was prepared by William Mitchell College of Law student, Noelle Oas.

Farmed or wild fish: Which is healthier?

A recent CNN News article examined the debate between the benefits and risks of farmed and wild salmon. A  2006 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association(JAMA) concludes that the benefits will usually outweigh the risks.  From CNN:

. . . Subsequent research has found that the health benefits of both farmed and wild salmon exceed potential risks, said Eric Rimm, associate professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health [and co-author of the 2006 JAMA study]."It's clear that if there is any risk, the benefit is still in the range of 300 to 1,000 times greater from the fact that you're getting the omega-3s," he said.

Read more on CNN

Go to the 2006 JAMA study: Fish Intake, Contaminants, and Human Health,

This post was prepared by William Mitchell College of Law Student, Scott Allen.

Jonathan Safran Foer on the Colbert Report

It's not quite law, but I'll grab any excuse to link to the Colbert Report.  One of my favorite authors, Jonathan Safran Foer, appeared on the Colbert Report last night to promote his new book, Eating Animals.

Here's a link to the interview with Stephen Colbert.

From the Eating Animals website:

Like many others, Jonathan Safran Foer spent his teenage and college years oscillating between omnivore and vegetarian. But on the brink of fatherhood—facing the prospect of having to make dietary choices on a child’s behalf—his casual questioning took on an urgency. This quest ultimately required him to visit factory farms in the middle of the night, dissect the emotional ingredients of meals from his childhood, and probe some of his most primal instincts about right and wrong.

This book is what he found. Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, memoir, and his own detective work, Eating Animals explores the many stories we use to justify our eating habits—folklore and pop culture, family traditions and national myth, apparent facts and inherent fictions—and how such tales can lull us into a brutal forgetting.

Marked by Foer’s moral ferocity and unvarying generosity, as well as the humor and style that made his previous books, Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, widely loved, Foer’s latest tour de force informs and delights, challenging us to explore what is too often conveniently brushed aside. A celebration and a reckoning, Eating Animals is a story about the stories we’ve told—and the stories we now need to tell.

FDA receives budget increase for food safety

Last week, President Obama formally unveiled his proposed budget for the 2011 fiscal year, which starts in October.  Early reports indicated that the Obama administration would propose a freeze on discretionary spending for all government programs, with the exception of defense and mandatory entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid).  But at least one government agency, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), would receive a 30% increase for food safety efforts. From a Packer article:

. . . “We’re pleased to see that FDA will see some additional money,” said Kathy Means, vice president of government relations and public affairs for the Newark, Del.-based Produce Marketing Association.

In the budget summary, the agency said the food safety budget tallies $1.4 billion, $327 million more than fiscal year 2010.

FDA will set standards for safety, expand laboratory capacity, pilot track and trace technology, strengthen our import safety program, improve data collection and risk analysis and begin to establish an integrated national food safety system with strengthened inspection and response capacity,” according to the document.

Apparently this funding increase will help the FDA perform more food inspections and employ other mechanisms to secure the Nation’s food supply chain. According to the budget summary:

. . . [the] FDA will focus greater efforts and resources on the science-based prevention of food-borne illness, strengthening surveillance and enforcement through more frequent and targeted inspections, and improving response and recovery from outbreaks of food-related illnesses.

Link to the budget summary on the Health & Human Services website.

Link to the Produce Marketing Association, a large, non-for-profit global trade association representing companies that market fresh produce.

This post was prepared by William Mitchell College of Law student Chris Zielinski/

Alaskan fisheries gain sought after certification

According to a statement released by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) , two Pacific cod fisheries have earned MSC certification.  From the Kodiak, Alaska, Daily Mirror:

. . . MSC is an international nonprofit organization that promotes solutions to the issue of over-fishing.  It also runs the only certification and ecolabeling program for wild-capture fisheries consistent with the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards and the United Nations FAO guidelines for fisheries certification. 

[Certification was based on] MSC’s three main principles: status of the fish stock, impact of the fishery on the marine ecosystem and the management system overseeing the fishery. These fisheries also will undergo annual surveillance audits.

MSC has hope that these most recent certifications will give consumers more options and information when shopping for cod at local groceries and markets.  According to the statement released by MSC :

. . . We anticipate that this certification will result in additional cod products bearing the MSC ecolabel, which will increase the opportunity for consumers to choose seafood that has been independently verified as coming from a sustainable, well-managed source.

MSC promotes its certification mark as a marketing plus:

. . . the MSC brings a range of potential benefits to any company in the supply chain 'from boat to plate'. With consumers and seafood buyers increasingly aware of the importance of healthy oceans, being part of a secure, traceable supply chain selling certified sustainable seafood makes good business sense.

 However the MSC’s certification process has been criticized as not going far enough to establish a true sustainable fishery. According to  Greenpeace, the MSC certification process has some strengths, but overall has many weaknesses. Some of the weaknesses:

    . . . certification requirements are not stringent and weak language is used . . . MSC standards fail to proscribe destructive catching methods, such as trawling or dredging. . . MSC certifies fisheries with depleted stock, which can never be consistent with a sustainable approach. 

 This post was prepared by William Mitchell College of Law student Nathan Midolo.

Junk food linked to depression

According to a study published in The British Journal of Psychiatry a diet that consists of consuming processed “junk” food may trigger or contribute to depression. Reporting on the study, an MSNBC News article explains:

... two dietary patterns were identified: the "whole food pattern" (defined by a high daily intake of vegetables, fruits, and fish) and the "processed food pattern"  (characterized by high consumption of sweetened desserts, chocolates, fried food, processed meat, pies, refined grains, high-fat dairy products, and condiments).  Five years later, all the participants answered a short questionnaire designed to measure symptoms of depression in the general population. . . .

. . .high consumption of processed food was associated with increased likelihood of depression, whereas those who had the highest consumption of whole foods were least likely to be depressed, and even less likely than those in the whole food pattern who ate fewer whole foods.

Medscape article on the study:
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/711867

This post was prepared by William Mitchell College of Law student Candice Duncan.

FDA Updates Statement on the Investigation into the Salmonella Montevideo Outbreak

FDA News Release, Feb. 4, 2010:

The Food and Drug Administration, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, continues to work closely with the Rhode Island Department of Health and other states in the investigation of an outbreak of Salmonella Montevideo infections associated with certain Italian-style sausage products including salami/salame. . . .

Recent samples of black pepper collected by the Rhode Island Department of Health at Daniele International Inc. tested positive for Salmonella. One sample from an open container matched the outbreak strain.  The remaining supply of pepper testing positive for Salmonella has been voluntarily placed on hold by both of Daniele’s suppliers.

The FDA is actively investigating . . .

read more

United States Seizes more than 1,500 Cases of Food from Wisconsin Distribution Warehouse

FDA News Release, Feb. 3, 2010:

FDA acts after inspections reveal filthy, rodent-infested facility

At the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Marshals on Tuesday seized a wide range of human and animal food products stored under insanitary conditions at Mid-States Closeouts, a distribution warehouse in Ellsworth, Wis. The products were seized under a warrant issued by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

U.S. Marshals seized all FDA-regulated human and animal food susceptible to rodent and pest contamination or other filth. The products are adulterated under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) because they have been held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with filth.

During an FDA inspection of Mid-States Closeouts conducted in November and December 2009, the agency found widespread and active rodent infestation, numerous gnawed packages of human and animal food, rodent excreta pellets on, in, and around food packages and rodent nesting material. The facility also had structural defects permitting easy pest access to the entire facility, and rodent harborage areas near the warehouse.

"The violations at Mid-States Closeouts are widespread and significant,” said Michael Chappell, the FDA’s acting associate commissioner, Office of Regulatory Affairs. “The FDA took this action because the company failed to provide adequate safeguards to ensure that products they hold for sale remain free of contamination.”

The FDA has not received any reports of human or pet illness or death associated with consumption of food distributed by Mid-States Closeouts. However, the seized products were in permeable packages and held under conditions that could compromise the food’s quality.

Cow Pies to Power America

The US Department of Agriculture and US dairy producers announced last December that they have reached an agreement to accelerate implementation of innovative manure to energy projects on American dairy farms.  Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, hails the agreement as a multifaceted victory, stating, “This historic agreement, the first of its kind, will help us achieve the ambitious goal of drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions while benefitting dairy farmers.”

Under the agreement, the USDA and dairy producers will work together to achieve a 25% reduction in greenhouse gasses by 2020.  Anaerobic digestor technology is a proven method of converting waste products, such as manure, into electricity.  It provides a new source of income for farmers, provides a source of renewable electricity, and reduces the amount of harmful methane gas released into the atmosphere.  According to Thomas P. Galleagher, CEO of the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy and Dairy Management Inc., “Sustainability goes hand in hand with our heritage of taking care of the land and natural resources while producing nutritious products that consumers want.”

Cow pies contain high levels of methane gas, a very strong greenhouse gas with 23 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. Therefore, quantifying and reducing methane emissions from livestock farms is important for developing sustainable food production systems.

Link to manure facts. 

This post was prepared by William Mitchell College of Law student, Scott Johnson.

Target going wild

Target announced in a press release last week that it will discontinue the sale of farm-raised salmon in all of its stores.  The farm-raised salmon will be replaced with sustainably caught wild Alaskan salmon certified by the Marine Stewardship Council. 

MINNEAPOLIS (January 26, 2010) – Target® today announces that it has eliminated all farmed salmon from its fresh, frozen, and smoked seafood offerings in Target stores nationwide. . . .

Many salmon farms impact the environment in numerous ways – pollution, chemicals, parasites and non-native farmed fish that escape from salmon farms all affect the natural habitat and the native salmon in the surrounding areas.  Wild-caught salmon from Alaska is considered a "Best Choice" by the Monterey Bay Aquarium and is certified as sustainable to the standard of theMarine Stewardship Council .  Alaskan salmon is among the most intensively managed species in the world, with excellent monitoring of both the fish populations and the fishery. 

This post was prepared by William Mitchell College of Law student, Nicolas Allyn.

Menu Labeling Updates: New Research Shows that Menu Labeling is Curbing Consumers’ Caloric Intake – and also Leading Major Restaurant Chains to Offer Healthier Menu Options

This is a guest post by Kate Armstrong, Staff Attorney, Public Health Law Center, William Mitchell College of Law.

According to two recent studies, nutrition labeling on menus in chain restaurants is leading consumers to make lower-calorie menu selections for themselves and for their children. 

The first study, released in early January 2010, was conducted by the Stanford Graduate School of Business.  The Stanford study, Calorie Posting in Chain Restaurants, focused on the impact of mandatory calorie posting on consumers’ purchasing decisions using sales data from Starbucks stores in New York City, where calorie labeling has been required by city regulation since April 2008.  It found that Starbucks consumers began switching to lower-calorie food options after menu labeling was required, resulting in average calories per transaction falling by six percent (6%).

From an Atlantic article about the Stanford study (which also references two complementary studies conducted by the NYC health department and researchers at Yale University):

The Stanford study, which compared data from Starbucks stores in New York City against stores in Boston and Philadelphia, where calorie-labeling laws are going into effect (they did on January 1 in Philadelphia, and will this November in Boston) is the first widely noted sign that people do change their ordering behavior when they see calorie counts—though not the first, as New York City health department preliminary studies, and a new study at Yale, published last month, are showing. Starbucks customers reduced calories in their food (but not their drink) orders by 6 percent overall and, more dramatically, by 26 percent if they had previously been ordering high-calorie Starbucks items. Starbucks profits didn't decrease—an answer to initial fears from food companies over labeling laws. But, unreassuringly for fast-food chains, sales at Starbucks stores within 100 meters of Dunkin Donuts stores increased by an average of three percent.

The second study, published in the January 25, 2010, online version of Pediatrics, was conducted by researchers at the University of Washington and the Seattle Children’s Research Institute.  The researchers used McDonald’s menus and looked at how parents reacted to nutritional information when making fast food selections for their children.  They found that when nutritional information is available on fast food restaurant menus, parents are more apt to pick lower-calorie foods for their children.

From a BusinessWeek article on the study, quoting lead researcher Dr. Pooja Tandon:

"When parents are provided with calorie information they chose about 100 calories less [per meal] for their 3- to 6-year-old child compared to parents who didn't have that information," said lead researcher Dr. Pooja Tandon, a graduate fellow in the department of general pediatrics at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Finally, the Wall Street Journal notes that local and state menu labeling legislation is leading several national restaurant chains to reformulate existing menu items to make them healthier, and to introduce new, lower-calorie menu options.  While national restaurant chains say that product reformulation is driven by customer demand for healthier options, it is also likely motivated by pending national menu labeling legislation:

The restaurant chains say the low-calorie shift was driven by customer demand rather than impending legislation. But providing calorie counts now will help them get ahead of a proposed federal law calling for chains with 20 or more restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards.  The proposed menu labeling requirements are part of health care legislation being debated in Congress.

Click here for the proposed national menu labeling legislation (see Section 4205, Nutrition Labeling of Standard Menu Items at Chain Restaurants) contained within the Senate health care reform bill, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, passed in the Senate on December 24, 2009.

Although national menu labeling legislation is packaged within the larger – and now up-in-the-air health care reform bill – it is still anticipated to pass this year, whether as part of national health care reform or as stand-alone legislation.