Food Law Prof Blog

Fly in the Salad Lawsuit

It was a defamation lawsuit against a man who said there were flies.  From the Chicago Tribune:

An alleged fly in a salad has turned out to be grounds for a lawsuit in Kane County. And according to the suit, the reputation of a restaurant named for Walter Payton is at stake.

The owners of Walter Payton's Roundhouse in Aurora last week sued for defamation an Aurora man whose job is to promote economic development in the city. The official allegedly sent out a mass e-mail warning people to stay away from the popular restaurant because of a supposed problem with flies.

And from the Wall Street Journal Law Blog:

We suppose lawsuits have been fought over smaller pieces of evidence, we don’t come across them that often. At issue in a lawsuit reported by the Chicago Tribune on Monday: whether a teensy creature wound up in the salad of patron at a restaurant in Aurora, Ill.

According to the story, the assistant director of the Aurora Economic Development Commission, Manuel Maysonet, recently dined at a Walter Payton’ Roundhouse restaurant in Aurora — ordering a chopped salad with barbecue sauce. Maysonet allegedly sent the salad back, complaining there was a fly in it.

Mislabeled restaurant fish

Last night I went out for dinner with some bicycling buddies. I ordered some sort of white fish. I don't remember what kind of fish it was supposed to be. It was good, but who knows what it really was? Sergei Lemberg's LemonJustice Blog has a post about a teen science project that analyzed restaurant fish and found it often to be mislabeled.

When we go out to a restaurant and peruse the menu, it’s a reasonable assumption that we’ll be served the dish that we order. Likewise, when we’re doing our grocery shopping, there’s no reason to believe that the products we buy are misrepresented. Until now, that is.

More at LemonJustice

Burger King trans fat case remanded to D. C. Superior Court

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) filed a lawsuit against Burger King in May 2007 "because it is the only one of the three top burger chains not to promise to phase out its use of partially hydrogenated frying oil." CSPI sued in Superior Court for the District of Columbia, but Burger King had the case removed to federal court.

This week the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted CSPI's motion to remand the case back to Superior Court.  The federal court found that CSPI did not have standing to bring the case in federal court because it did not allege that it had "suffered an injury in fact sufficient to meet the constitutional standing requirements of Article III."

Burger King had moved to dismiss the case, arguing that remand would be futile because the Superior Court will inevitably also find that CSPI lacks standing, but the DC Circuit has not adopted this "futility exception" (recognized by some circuits but not DC).

According to CSPI,

Wendy’s and McDonald’s are each phasing out their use of partially hydrogenated oil. KFC stopped using it for deep-frying in 2007 after CSPI sued the company, though it still uses it in biscuits and pot pies. Fried foods from Burger King are alarmingly high in trans fat, according to CSPI. A regular-size order of Chicken Tenders with a large order of French fries has 8 grams of trans—more than someone should consume in four days.

CSPI News Release

District Court opinion

Mississippi Obesity Bill dropped -- dies in committee

Thank goodness they didn't mean it.  The Mississippi bill that would have prohibited restaurants from serving obese patrons (blogged here) died in committee, according to the Mississippi Sun Herald.

The bill, whose authors knew it had little chance of passage, attracted media attention from all over the world. Sponsors, including Rep. John Read, R-Gautier, said they wanted to draw attention to the obesity epidemic that plagues the state.

"Anybody with any sense knows it's not going to happen, not going to pass," Read told the Sun Herald recently. "Mississippi has been ranked the most obese state in the nation. With all the attention paid to tobacco problems, this was to shed some light on another major problem. This has been at least getting the dialogue going."

And here I thought we were supposed to be serious about legislation.

Diner finds purple pearl in $10 plate of steamed clams

From wcbstv.com:  (Click for video)

A $10 plate of clams served up the surprise of a lifetime for a Florida couple, a rare purple pearl.

George and Leslie Brock rarely order steamed clams, but on their last visit to a Lake Worth, Florida restaurant, they decided to be spontaneous and order seafood. Little did they know…

more

Study says Americans prefer junk food

From Science Daily:

Price And Taste Trump Nutrition When Americans Eat Out

Americans are less willing to pay more for healthy dishes, less knowledgeable about healthy menu items, and more likely to consider healthy items bland-tasting than they were three years ago, finds a Temple University analysis.

NY City Trying Again to Require Calorie Content

Last month a federal judge threw out the New york City regulation that would have required restaurants to provide calorie contents for their dishes.  (See Judge Throws Out New York Rule Requiring Restaurants to Post Calories , New York Times, 9-12-07).

Now New York City is trying again.   City Tries Again With Labeling Fast-Food Menus (NYT, 10-24-07). Exerpt:

The new regulation would apply to all restaurants with 15 outlets or more across the country, though it’s aimed squarely at the fast food industry. Many chains, like McDonald’s, Burger King and Starbucks, already provide calorie information on their Web sites, or on posters or tray liners available in their restaurants. But health officials say customers rarely see this information before deciding what to order.

A survey by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene this spring found that, excluding Subway restaurants, 97 percent of fast-food customers never saw any nutritional information before or after their purchase.

A public hearing is scheduled for Nov. 27 and the Board of Health is expected to vote on the measure in January.

read the NYT article

Burger King Sued Over Trans Fats

The Center for Science In the Public Interest (CSPI) is sueing Burger King because of its use of partionally hydrogenated oils.  From the CSPI Newsroom:

CSPI Says Burger King is Biggest Chain Without Firm Plans to Convert to Safer Alternatives to Partially Hydrogenated Oils

WASHINGTON—By using partially hydrogenated oil, Burger King is knowingly increasing its customers' risk of heart disease and early death, according to a lawsuit filed today by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest. CSPI is asking a District of Columbia Superior Court judge to order the restaurant chain to stop using the deadly trans-fat-laden ingredient, or at least to require prominent warning notices on Burger King’s menu boards. According to CSPI, Burger King is the biggest restaurant chain that is not fully committed to getting rid of the artificial trans fat found in partially hydrogenated oil.

Humane Eggs and Ham

  An article on The Motley Fool, Burger King's Less Subservient Chickens, by Alyce Lomax, reports on retailers and restaurants that are shifting to free-range chickens and more humanely produced pork.

It seems the king is granting more clemency for animals in its supply chain -- Burger King (NYSE: BKC), that is. Like a growing number of companies, the fast-food giant said it plans to increase its focus on buying eggs and pork from cage-free and crate-free animals.

Burger King informed animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) of its intention through letters, which the organization provided to the Associated Press. The company wrote that it has started purchasing 10% of its pork from suppliers that don't use sow gestation crates. It also said it will start getting 2% of its eggs from cage-free hens. Burger King plans to double the percentage it purchases in both of these areas by the end of this year.

No more trans fats in NYC

Someone had to be first.  New York City has approved its proposed ban on artificial trans fats in restaurant food.  It is actually only a partial ban -- restaurant foods can still have less than a half a gram per serving, but the regulation is nevertheless significant.

In addition, restaurants that post food composition information anywhere must now provide it on the menu.  The Calorie rule is explicitly intended to help combat obesity.

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene press release.

Parke Wilde's U.S. Food Policy Blog (because he does a nice job and is worth reading)

Cutting Salt in Kids' Diets Reduces Blood Pressure

Link: Cutting Salt in Kids' Diets Reduces Blood Pressure

A new study shows that reducing salt intake in children quickly lowers their blood pressure. If their blood pressure remains lower, those kids could experience lower rates of heart attacks and strokes as they age. But according to the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), makers of popular packaged and restaurant foods make it virtually impossible for children not to consume unhealthy levels of salt if they eat them.