Regulation
Photo of the Day: Big Changes Are Coming
March 11, 2013 9:33 am | News | CommentsThe nation’s first limit on the size of sugar-laden beverages is set to take effect Tuesday in the city. Customers will no longer get 24-ounce tumblers of soda, since the new rule bars selling non-diet cola in cups, bottles or pitchers bigger than 16 ounces.
Colo. Bill to Ban Cow Tail Cutting Worries Dairy Farmers
March 8, 2013 9:28 am | by ALEXANDRA TILSLEY,Associated Press | News | CommentsThe backside of Colorado's dairy cows was the focus of a contentious debate Thursday in a state House committee, which ultimately postponed a vote on a bill that would prevent farmers from cutting cattle tails for sanitary reasons. The bill before the House Health, Insurance and Environment Committee would ban so-called docking except when performed by a veterinarian using anesthesia.
Daily Sound Bite: USDA Announces Food Security Initiative
March 7, 2013 12:27 pm | News | CommentsThe USDA has announced the award of over $75 million in grants, research and education to improve food security around the world. The grants were awarded to 21 universities to help increase the availability of food in an effort to eliminate hunger across the globe.
Wash. Dairies to Reduce Runoff Pollution
March 7, 2013 12:11 pm | News | CommentsA group of Yakima Valley dairies have agreed to reduce runoff pollution that's tainting the area's groundwater, officials announced Wednesday. The agreement between the dairies and the Environmental Protection Agency comes more than five months after the agency published a study that said the dairies were likely to be one of the sources of nitrate pollution in nearby private water wells.
Nestle: Bars Destroyed in China Were Intended for Italy
March 7, 2013 12:08 pm | News | CommentsNestle says that its cereal bars that were destroyed by regulators in China late last year because they contained an unapproved ingredient weren't intended for the country. In a statement issued Thursday, the Swiss food and beverage company said the Fitness Chocolate Hazelnut cereal bars were intended for Italy, where the ingredient sorbitol is approved for use.
Energy Drinks: Considering the Legal Risks (Part II)
March 7, 2013 9:28 am | by Michael Gruver and Glenn Pogust, Kaye Scholer LLP | Articles | CommentsAn energy drink maker should consider several questions, in consultation with legal counsel, to assess its potential vulnerability to litigation. These questions will also be useful going forward, in helping to design marketing campaigns and packaging less likely to serve as the basis for consumer litigation.
Online Regulatory Reference
March 7, 2013 1:00 am | by Food Manufacturing Staff | Product Releases | CommentsThe online regulatory reference service RegSense® 2.0 allows users to quickly access current OSHA, DOT, EPA and Hazmat regulations.
OSHA Cites Safety Issues at Meat Byproducts Plant
March 6, 2013 12:45 pm | News | CommentsFederal regulators say they're proposing $91,300 in fines for safety violations at a meat byproducts plant in the south-central Nebraska city of Lexington. The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration said in a news release Tuesday that there are six violations, including one repeat violation, at the Darling International plant. OSHA says the Darling plant operates as Dar Pro in Lexington.
Frito-Lay Loses Suit over Bowl-Shaped Chips
March 6, 2013 9:52 am | by JIM SALTER,Associated Press | News | CommentsA Texas jury has sided with a St. Louis company in its fight with snack giant Frito-Lay over the right to produce bowl-shaped tortilla chips. Plano, Texas-based Frito-Lay sued St. Louis-based Ralcorp Holdings and its Medallion Foods subsidiary in February 2012, saying Ralcorp's Bowlz corn chips were too similar to Frito-Lay's Tostitos Scoops! chips.
Idaho Distributors Fight Brewers
March 5, 2013 9:56 am | News | CommentsIdaho beer distributors are aiming to forbid beer brewers including giants Miller Coors and Anheuser-Busch Inbev from owning distributorships. The Idaho Beer and Wine Distributors Association's bill originally failed in the Senate State Affairs Committee on Friday.
Tenn. Supermarket Wine Opponents Contribute Heavily
March 5, 2013 9:54 am | by ERIK SCHELZIG,Associated Press | News | CommentsContributions totaling more than $364,000 have poured into lawmakers' campaign accounts over the past two years from liquor wholesalers, package stores and the beer industry — three groups that have traditionally opposed changing state law to allow wine to be sold in supermarkets.
Texas Brewers Seek to Expand Craft Market
March 5, 2013 9:52 am | by MICHAEL BRICK,Associated Press | News | CommentsFrom his pizza pub in San Antonio, Scott Metzger has built a modest business around brewing offbeat ales with names like Broken Treaty, eXXXtra Pale and End of the World. Now he wants to be known as a job creator. On Tuesday, he plans to go before the Texas Senate's Committee on Business and Commerce, which has agreed to consider legislation that would expand the market for craft beers.
Obama Gives Horse Slaughter Thumbs Down
March 4, 2013 11:24 am | by JERI CLAUSING, Associated Press | News | CommentsThe Obama administration threw a new twist in a more than yearlong debate over how best to humanely deal with a rising number of abused and neglected horses with a statement urging Congress to reinstate a ban on equine slaughter as federal officials indicate they might soon grant the inspection needed to start processing horse meat in New Mexico.
Maine Considers Helping Lobster Industry
March 1, 2013 12:34 pm | by CLARKE CANFIELD,Associated Press | News | CommentsLawmakers are looking to boost Maine's troubled lobster industry with proposals that would pump more money into marketing the state's signature seafood and offer tax breaks to encourage more lobster processing. The moves follow last year's chaotic fishing season that saw a lobster glut, a crash in wholesale prices and tensions boil over.
Iowa Meatpacking Town Fears Impact of Budget Cuts
March 1, 2013 12:29 pm | by RYAN J. FOLEY,Associated Press | News | CommentsAutomatic federal budget reductions set to take effect Friday could fall like a meat ax on the small Iowa town of Columbus Junction, where a sprawling Tyson Foods hog processing plant dominates the economy. The White House has warned that 6,300 meat and poultry plants could slow production or temporarily shut down under the across-the-board cuts, which may force USDA to furlough meat inspectors for up to 15 days through Sept. 30.
Daily Sound Bite: Food Safety in Peril
March 1, 2013 11:36 am | News | CommentsThe FDA joins the USDA in expressing concerns about how the looming so-called sequestration budget cuts will impact food safety. The FDA estimated the cuts will force the agency to reduce inspectors by 2,100, even as the Food Safety Modernization Act requires the agency to increase total inspections year-over-year.
4 Charged in Salmonella Outbreak Plead Innocent
March 1, 2013 9:44 am | by JAMES L. ROSICA and KATE BRUMBACK,Associated Press | News | CommentsFour people charged in connection with a 2009 salmonella outbreak in peanuts that killed nine and sickened hundreds pleaded not guilty Thursday to all charges. Peanut Corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell, his food broker brother Michael Parnell, Georgia plant manager Samuel Lightsey and Georgia plant quality assurance manager Mary Wilkerson entered their pleas in a south Georgia federal court.
FDA Commissioner: Budget Cuts Risk Food Safety
March 1, 2013 9:42 am | by MARY CLARE JALONICK,Associated Press | News | CommentsFewer food safety inspections and an increased risk to consumers will result from the lack of a new 2013 budget from Congress and the upcoming across-the-board spending cuts, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said Thursday.
No Use Denying over Spilled Milk
February 28, 2013 1:59 pm | by Robert D. Chesler, Steven J. Pudell, and Kathleen F. Donovan of Anderson Kill & Olick | Articles | CommentsWhen food companies face loss or liability stemming from product recalls induced by allegations of food contamination, insurance companies often deny coverage on grounds that there was no actual property damage. A second often-contested question is whether product recall exclusions apply to liability incurred by a company when a customer recalls its product.
Food Safety Expert Discusses FSMA
February 28, 2013 1:36 pm | Videos | CommentsJoe Levitt, a partner at Hogan Lovells and the former Director for the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, discusses what food companies need to know about the Food Safety Modernization Act and how best to comply with new regulations.
EU Ministers Back Ban on Fish Discards
February 28, 2013 12:10 pm | by DON MELVIN,Associated Press | News | CommentsOfficials from the 27 European Union countries proposed Wednesday a phased-in ban on the discarding of unwanted fish by fishing vessels, but environmentalists immediately condemned the measure as too weak. Dead and dying fish are often thrown overboard if they do not meet quotas or fishermen's preferences, creating a huge waste of for the ecosystem and business alike.
Vt. House Panel Approves Tax on Sugary Drinks
February 28, 2013 9:40 am | News | CommentsA Vermont House committee has reversed itself and approved a penny-an-ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages to pay for health care subsidies, but the idea appears still to have a bumpy road ahead. The House Health Care Committee had defeated the measure on a 5-5 tie vote on Friday. But on Wednesday, the panel voted in two 7-4 tallies to advance the measure.
Scandals & Missteps: What's Up with the Food Industry?
February 28, 2013 9:39 am | Videos | CommentsHuffPost Live covers some of the food industry's more recent scandals, headaches and boondoggles, including Monsanto's fight against an Indiana farmer, the ongoing horsemeat saga and the questionable state of seafood labeling in the U.S.
Liquor Bill Aims to Take Down Utah’s ‘Zion Curtains’
February 28, 2013 9:38 am | by ANNIE KNOX,Associated Press | News | CommentsOne of Utah's famously strict liquor laws forbids the restaurant from pouring alcohol in front of customers. The barriers, known here as "Zion curtains," went up around the state in 2010. Right now, the curtain requirement applies to restaurants that are less than 3 years old. But this year, the curtains may come down.
Both Parties Agree on Need for More Farm Workers
February 27, 2013 12:17 pm | by ERICA WERNER,Associated Press | News | CommentsRepublicans and Democrats said farmers should be allowed to hire foreign workers more easily as Congress reworks U.S. immigration laws. But there was some disagreement on how it should happen. Lawmakers and witnesses at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing said the visa program that lets farmers hire foreign agricultural workers is so unwieldy it accounts for only a very small percentage of farm workers hired in the U.S.
