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FDA 
Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 13:36:59 PM PST
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Homer called it "liquid gold." Olive oil has been more than mere food to us Mediterraneans: it's our way of life. The olive tree, symbol of abundance, glory and peace, gave its leafy branches to crown the victorious in both friendly games and bloody war. Olive crowns and olive branches, ancient emblems of benediction and purifiation, were ritually offered to deities and powerful figures but it is only in recent times that modern scientific research has proven over and over what the peasant wisdom knew a long time ago: its wonderful taste and health properties.
One tablespoon of olive oil contains 120 calories and 14 grams of fat, but the fat is mostly monounsaturated and has a beneficial effect on blood cholesterol levels. It is no wonder that Mediterranean countries where olive oil is consumed extensively such as Greece, France, Italy and Spain, there is a low incidence of cardiovascular diseases. It also protects the body's digestive tract.
Cross-posted on the Evil Orange.
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Sun Oct 25, 2009 at 08:04:03 AM PDT
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( - promoted by JayinPortland)
A research paper published in the September issue of Pediatric Nephrology reveals that current limits on trace amounts of melamine in baby formula increase the risk of pediatric kidney disease, therefore are too high. Melamine is the industrial chemical that hospitalized thousands of Chinese children in 2008 when it was intentionally added to milk in large amounts.
Researchers found that cases of pediatric nephrolithiasis nearly doubled with when infants were exposed to less than 0.2 mg/kg per day of melamine. That is the World Health Organization's recommended "tolerable daily intake" (TDI) for infants. That finding also calls into question the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's somewhat lower limit of 0.063 mg/kg for infants because we do not know how much lower than 0.2 mg/kg one has to go to reach a "no observed adverse effects level" or NOAEL. Another finding, that the risk from melamine increases "with the duration of exposure," calls into question FDA's limit for adults and older children, also. So far, however, the FDA and the Department of Agriculture (which share food safety responsibilities) and the news media have been silent about the study.
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Wed Sep 09, 2009 at 10:26:37 AM PDT
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Yesterday brought news of a new food safety rule:
All companies that manufacture, process or distribute food for people or animals to eat must now report any problems that could lead to food-borne illness within 24 hours, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday.
Notification must be made using the online Reportable Food Registry, which was mandated by Congress two years ago in the hope of speeding up the process of alerting the FDA of contaminated foods and cutting down on the distribution of such food.
Here's the bit about this from the FDA website. According to the press release, this was announced by the FDA in June and a comment period followed.
Meanwhile, both HHS and the USDA (the FDA is under HHS) jointly announced a new food safety website, which they have brilliantly named FoodSafety.gov. From the press release:
Consumers can sign up in one easy place to receive email and RSS alerts on recalled or potentially unsafe food and hear from the top scientific experts across the government on food safety. Later phases of the site to be launched will include recall feeds for texting and mobile phones. The site will also feature a foodsafety.gov widget that the public and the media are encouraged to download and promote on their Web sites and social networking sites. The widget will instantly update viewers with the latest food safety recalls and will be a valuable public health and safety tool.
I hate to say it, but I think we have Michael Taylor (the FDA's Food Safety Czar and Monsanto's former lobbyist) to thank for this.
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Wed Aug 19, 2009 at 14:43:42 PM PDT
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FDA announced on Monday that they expect to rule by November on bisphenol A (BPA)'s safety for use in food and beverage containers. FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg will make the decision following the completion of a review by government scientists of all available studies on BPA, including over 100 new studies on the chemical, many of which have been covered here over the past year.
The timeline was criticized by some environmental activists who say the government has had more than enough time to consider the chemical's effects.
[...]
The FDA ruled last August that BPA was safe for all use. The FDA's own advisory board rejected the ruling, noting that it was based on two studies, both of which had been financed by the plastics industry.
Canada and a handful of US States and localities have already banned use of the substance in baby bottles, and others are currently considering doing so.
Bisphenol A is a known endocrine disruptor commonly used in the production of many household items, from baby bottles to plastic food containers to soup cans to dental fillings; and exposure via tap water and house dust is now also thought possible. Many studies have linked long term, low-level BPA exposure to everything from increased risks for obesity by triggering fat-cell activity, to diabetes, heart disease in women, fertility defects and an increased risk of developing breast cancer later in life from fetal exposure.
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Fri Jul 31, 2009 at 16:20:59 PM PDT
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Lucky us! The FDA has just issued draft guidelines for safe leafy greens, tomatoes, and melons. I have a hunch we'll be talking about these guidelines much more in the near future - as soon as organizations like the Cornucopia Institute, Organic Consumers Association, and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition get a good look at them and start telling us how we can properly comment to the FDA. So stay tuned...
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Fri Jul 17, 2009 at 17:46:20 PM PDT
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(Thanks to Bill Marler - the man who SHOULD be our next USDA Under Secretary For Food Safety - for this! - promoted by Jill Richardson)
I began my career as a food safety attorney because Lauren Beth Rudolph died on December 28, 1992 in her mother's arms, due to complications of an E. coli O157:H7 infection - Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome. She was only 6 years, 10 months, and 10 days old when she died. Her death, the deaths of three other children, and the sicknesses of 600 others, were eventually linked to E. coli O157:H7 tainted hamburger produced by Von's and served at Jack in the Box restaurants on the West Coast during late 1992 and January 1993. I met Roni Rudolph, Lauren's mom, when I litigated the case against Jack in the Box. We've been friends in the ensuing sixteen years.
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Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT
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The House just passed a major budget increase for the chronically-underfunded FDA. Specifically, the FDA is getting an extra $373 million (and the Wall Street Journal calls it "the largest boost in the agency's history")! To put that in perspective, the FDA's entire 2010 budget is $2.99 billion, so it was a about a 14% increase to their budget.
Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) told DeLauro that "We're stealing our grandchildren's future by spending so much money," and introduced an amendment to keep funding levels the same. (Wait - wasn't he the guy who wanted to make 2010 the Year of the Bible? Are we supposed to pray the E. coli away?) DeLauro replied that Broun's proposal "in fact would put this agency back in jeopardy. We just cannot afford to neglet our food safety system any longer." Hell yeah, Rep. DeLauro!!!
(I have an idea for Broun - why don't we save our grandkids' money by no longer buying more F-22 fighter jets for the military... these things are the ultimate pork. They have parts made in 44 different states, so Congress keeps ordering more planes to create jobs in their states even though the military says NO MORE F-22s! The F-22 was made to fight the Soviets - but it's not just that they are outdated. They are also complete crap. They only fly an average of 1.7 hours at a time before breaking down! Let's use the money the House just set aside for F-22s for food safety instead.)
Back to the FDA budget story, here's some more info on the budget from the WSJ:
Much of the increase in funding will target food safety initiatives, an area where the FDA has faced numerous challenges in the last year amid concerns as to how the agency responded to a variety of foodborne health problems involving peanuts, pet food and hot peppers. Rep. DeLauro said it will allow the FDA to review more food that enters the country's borders and hire an additional 1,150 foreign and domestic inspections.
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Tue Jul 07, 2009 at 23:17:57 PM PDT
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If you were wondering what Michael Taylor, the new food safety guy at the FDA, thinks we oughta do to make our food safer, look no further than his recent testimony before the House Ag Committee on April 2, 2009. Highlights are below.
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Tue Jul 07, 2009 at 22:35:57 PM PDT
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Just watch that revolving door swing around and around and around...
The FDA just announced the appointment of Michael Taylor as a Senior Advisor to the FDA Commissioner, Margaret Hamburg.
Taylor previously worked at the USDA from 1976-1981 as a staff lawyer. He left government to work at King & Spaulding, a law firm representing Monsanto.
He returned to government - this time to the FDA - for a stint as Deputy Commissioner for Policy from 1991-1994. According to Marion Nestle in Food Politics:
[At the FDA] he was part of the team that issued the agency's decidedly industry-friendly policy on food biotechnology and that approved the use of Monsanto's genetically engineered growth hormone in dairy cows. His questionable role in these decisions led to an investigation by the federal General Accounting Office, which eventually exonerated him of all conflict-of-interest charges.
In 1994, he moved over to the USDA's Food Safety & Inspection Service to serve as Administrator until 1996. Then it was back to King & Spaulding for a little bit, and - in 1998 - over to Monsanto, where he was a senior lobbyist (Vice President for Public Policy).
Most recently, beginning in 2000, he was a fellow for Resources for The Future, serving as Research Professor Of Health Policy at George Washington University. Until this week, that is. Resources for Our Future is quite corporate funded with members of its Board of Directors from BP, Chevron, and DuPont.
And now he's back at the FDA. Great. Thanks Obama. Really.
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Fri Jun 26, 2009 at 16:00:00 PM PDT
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Inspection reports of 2005, 2006 and 2007 visits to the Nestle plant in Virginia involved in the current recall of cookie dough products are available online at Bill Marler's blog. I read through them and picked out the 'highlights' (posted below the fold), but there's nothing in the reports that would fully explain the cause of this E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. The biggest news from these reports, however, seems to be Nestle's (completely legal for right now) refusal to provide FDA inspectors access to pest-control records, customer complaint files and other records and information -
In a September 2006 visit, for example, managers at the Danville, Va., plant refused to allow a Food and Drug Administration inspector to review consumer complaints or inspect its program designed to prevent food contamination. The inspector found dirty equipment and "three live ant-like insects" on a ledge but nothing severe enough to give the plant a failing grade. [...]
The FDA can [currently] inspect the records if it invokes a bioterrorism law and shows that the agency has "a reasonable belief" that the foods pose serious health threats -- a high bar to cross.
While it may not be perfect, and while we definitely have to continue to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't unfairly harm small, responsible producers when it's clearly these major food companies who are the problem when it comes to food safety in our current system; the food safety legislation currently in Congress will require food companies to provide FDA access to these records, and that's a very good and necessary thing. "Company policy" should never be able to override our regulatory agencies' efforts to ensure that we aren't taking our lives into our hands every time we shop at the supermarket.
Details from the inspection reports, and a bit more, below the fold...
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Wed Jun 10, 2009 at 14:19:55 PM PDT
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Yeah, it isn't stopping anytime soon...
- A new study finds BPA may contribute to heart disease in women. FDA agreed earlier this month to review their decision on BPA, and hopefully they'll use real science this time.
Women are more likely to die from heart attacks than men mostly because of problems caused by arrhythmias, Belcher said.
"It looks like BPA will be very harmful to the female heart," he said.
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Low doses of BPA "markedly increased" arrhythmias, [Scott] Belcher [leader of the University of Cincinnati research team] said, and the effect was amplified when the heart cells were exposed to both BPA and estrogen.
Two more items below the fold...
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Thu Jun 04, 2009 at 08:00:00 AM PDT
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May be too early to draw anything from, but it looks like Congress is at least starting to consider doing something about FDA's disgraceful handling of the BPA issue until now -
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg relating to the possible dangers of Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical found in consumer products and food product containers, particularly in infant formula containers and other items used by infants and children. Chairmen Waxman and Stupak asked Commissioner Hamburg to reconsider the FDA's conclusion under the Bush Administration that BPA is safe at current estimated exposure levels.
"It is critical that we know for certain whether BPA is safe to use in consumer products and food product containers," said Chairman Waxman. "We need to make sure that FDA thoroughly and fairly reviews the best science on BPA so that the public - and especially infants and children - are protected."
Much new information has come out about BPA since FDA's decision last year, and none of it has been kind to the chemical and plastics industry. Nor, for that matter, has it been kind to FDA. Let's hope the new administration straightens things out on this.
Rep. Stupak also expressed concern about the Bush Administration FDA's interactions with industry during the approval process and beyond, while both Reps. Waxman and Stupak sent a document request to the North American Metal Packaging Alliance regarding the fear and smear tactics they are reported to be planning to use in their upcoming PR counterattack.
Here are the letters [pdf] sent to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, and to the world's leading BPA cheerleader, NAMPA Chairman Dr. John Rost.
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Wed May 13, 2009 at 15:15:00 PM PDT
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- The FDA has sent a warning letter to General Mills, telling the company to stop promoting Cheerios as a health food. (For a funny take on the Right Wing blogosphere's outrage (grrrr!) at FDA's "attack" on
America cereal, see here.) Meanwhile, Health Canada unfortunately seems to want to make it easier for food manufacturers to be able to market junk as "health food" in their country...
- Elementary school students are snacking on (and learning about) healthy local produce in Madison, Wisconsin.
- Can't say this is really a surprise - from Grist, Monsanto is now firing off their propaganda on National Petrol, errrrr, National Public Radio. Great article debunking Monsanto's claims, but it's not like the oil companies, ADM and other corporate interests haven't already been scrubbing themselves "clean" in their own greenshowers over the airwaves of NPR for years and years and years...
- Fantastic article from Ken Olsen at High Country News on the intersection of agriculture, business, politics, power and salmon - and what government ultimately needs to do to help restore wild salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest.
More below the fold...
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Fri May 01, 2009 at 15:10:00 PM PDT
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Here's an interesting blog to check out. The photos (of boxes of meat covered in rat poop) are from a few years ago, but as it's been made very clear since then, no real food safety changes have yet been instituted since that time.
I've worked in a few warehouses, and I've certainly seen nasty stuff before. I've never worked in a food distribution or manufacturing facility, though. I can say, however, that food manufacturing facilities were pretty common to run across during my decade working in environmental remediation back in New Jersey. If they can't, don't or won't properly handle their wastewater discharges, it's probably a good bet that's not the only sanitary problem with the facility...
A few other recent items:
- Federal "regulators" are warning people to stop using a popular line of "diet supplements", after about 2 dozen reports of "significant adverse health effects" (including one death) in people who used it. Eye-opening read, that NY Times piece -
Unlike drugs, whose manufacturers must provide safety and effectiveness data before receiving federal approval to sell the products, dietary supplements do not need prior F.D.A. sanction to go on sale. Manufacturers of dietary supplements are themselves responsible for ensuring and documenting the safety and efficacy claims of their products.
- Families and victims of food poisoning have been in Washington, DC this week to push for updated federal food safety legislation.
- Follow the trail! Arizona spinach goes to a Wisconsin packer, then heads on to a nationwide distributor who ships the product to Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois. The spinach tests positive for salmonella, and is recalled. Interestingly enough, the distributor was notified of the positive test results on April 27, yet no recall was announced until April 29. Why did
it take two days they wait until the third day (thanks, nycstray!) to announce to the public, especially considering that no weekends or holidays were involved?
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Tue Apr 28, 2009 at 15:00:00 PM PDT
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It seems that the news today is all swine flu, all the time. Well, here are a few other things going on, besides swine flu. But if you DO want a swine flu update, do not miss Tom Philpott's piece on Grist. He says it better than anyone else I've read so far, condemning industrial agriculture and the filthy and risky conditions that we all consider acceptable in order to produce and eat cheap meat.
- Tom Laskawy comments on the reports that phthalates make us fat(ter). Here are my two cents: The focus on food should continue because crap eating is crap eating whether or not you get fat from it, and the focus on eliminating phthalates (used in PVC plastic) should ALSO continue because we know they do bad things OTHER THAN make us fat.
- Mark Bittman tells how to make sunchoke fritters. I'm a fan of sunchokes, but I've never tried them as fritters. (In fact, being raised in a fat-phobic Jewish family, the only time a year I got anything that remotely resembled a "fritter" was Hanukkah.)
- Alternet takes on marijuana legalization. They say 4 in 10 have smoked it, yet millions still get busted. And among those millions are my own friends and family, and perhaps yours too. The ridiculous war on pot hurts all of us. It's time to call a truce, or maybe even just wave a white flag and admit that pot is the rightful winner.
- This idea of highrise farms gets trotted out every so often as the possible silver bullet to solve all of our problems. I'm a skeptic. What do you think?
- No patents on seeds? Marion Nestle recommends we check out a report that calls for just that.
- Marion Nestle also shares info on banned pesticides in Chilean farmed salmon. One more good reason to say no to farmed fish. Particularly farmed carnivorous fish.
- Good things come in threes, right? I've got a third good one from Marion Nestle. The title is Who needs bioterrorism when we've got manure lagoons. I soooo agree. Osama doesn't need to make us sick from our food supply because we do that all by ourselves.
- Consumers Union speaks up about an issue I've been yelling about on this site - the FDA wants to delay a new "feed ban" rule by 60 days, leaving us open to increased risk of mad cow disease for an additional two months.
- Scary news from Environmental Health News (although not surprising at all): Together, two common pesticides may increase risk of Parkinson's disease.
- And now for some good news: The LA Times reports on hospitals adding fresh, organic foods to their menus. Yay!
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