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Kellogg 
Thu May 28, 2009 at 04:00:00 AM PDT
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The fight for safer food has officially kicked off. As I wrote yesterday, we've got a bill. Well, a draft of a bill, anyway. It's the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 and it's being introduced by Henry Waxman along with Representatives John Dingell, Bart Stupak, Diana DeGette, Frank Pallone, and Betty Sutton.
To take stock of the fight we're going to have, I began digging around lobbying records. Who's for what, and how much money are they spending. Let's see here:
| Company | Amount (Total Lobbying, Not Just Food Safety)
First quarter 2009 only |
Food Marketing Institute
Kraft Foods
Grocery Manufacturers Association
Nestle
Sodexo
Miller/Coors
National Restaurant Association
3M
PepsiCo
Safeway
General Mills
Consumers Union
Center for Science in the Public Interest | $1,063,000
$770,000
$720,000
$616,843
$590,000
$550,000
$447,000
$400,000
$430,000
$350,000
$240,000
$80,000
$32,983 |
But wait! Before you get worried that industry is outspending consumer advocacy groups and the lobbyists are trying to kill this legislation - apparently Kraft, Kellogg, and General Mills are now FOR food safety reform! Even the Grocery Manufacturers sound open to it. My hunch? First of all, these guys see the changes coming down the pike no matter what. They want to sound agreeable so that they can make sure that whatever reform occurs is to their own liking.
And second of all, they lost a lot of money from the peanut butter incident. So in that sense, they really DO want safe food. But in the hearings thus far, they definitely sounded hesitant about how much regulation they were actually interested in. Kellogg sounded particularly uncomfortable with unannounced inspections, user fees paid to the FDA to cover the cost of inspections, and microbial testing for pathogens. Remember, their #1 priority isn't food safety, it's profit. They are only interested in food safety as a means to that end.
UPDATE: Here's what the Grocery Manufacturers has to say about the food safety bill:
The Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents the food industry, supports much of the legislation but objects to a $1,000 annual registration fee that would be required of all food facilities to help pay for the FDA's increased oversight. The association also objects to some of the tracing requirements, saying they would create a financial burden.
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Thu Jan 22, 2009 at 16:17:20 PM PST
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The peanut butter recall has GREATLY expanded since yesterday. If you have any processed foods with peanut butter in them in your home, I strongly encourage you to check the list of recalled foods (below). You can find specific lot numbers, stock numbers, and UPC codes for these at the official FDA website.
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Wed Jan 21, 2009 at 09:02:12 AM PST
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The peanut butter recall continues. The FDA has an updated list of all recalled products, which I've included below. As it turns out, Peanut Corporation of America - the company that supplied the bad peanut butter to everyone else - sells organics and pet food products in addition to just regular, plain old peanut butter. Also, where the original recall only included relatively small size containers of peanut butter by PCA, now the recall includes sizes like 1700 lbs and entire tankers. As a result, the recall of retail products now includes candy, cookies, crackers, ice cream, pet food, and snack bars!
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Mon Jan 19, 2009 at 11:09:08 AM PST
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The salmonella in peanut butter problem just gets bigger and bigger. It started with a recall by Peanut Corporation of America, with no consumer products affected. Then Kellogg recalled a few Keebler and Austin products because they buy from PCA. Now PCA has added more products to their recall, which means Kellogg has to expand their recall...
and Kellogg manufactures a few products for McKee Foods (Little Debbie brand) so now McKee is in on the recall as well. Can you say "oy vey"???
Keep reading for a list of all recalled foods...
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Wed Jan 14, 2009 at 17:21:06 PM PST
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Earlier, I wrote that the peanut recall does not affect any consumer products sold in retail locations. Turns out, that may be wrong. You don't need to worry about jars of peanut butter - that much is correct. But your other peanut-flavored snacks? Well, they may have used the recalled peanut butters as an ingredient. For instance, Kellogg is taking peanut butter snacks off the shelves.
Kellogg says it is not aware of any tainted products but it is taking this measure as a precaution because PCA is one of its suppliers. Kudos to them, if that's the case. Since my earlier diary, the food poisoning tally has gone up - from "almost 400" to "at least 410" people, and from 42 to 43 states. I've also heard anecdotally that the problem has spread to Canada.
The Kellogg products that are being taken off shelves are Keebler & Austin brand:
Toasted Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Crackers
Cheese and Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers
Peanut Butter-Chocolate Sandwich Crackers.
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Thu Aug 07, 2008 at 10:00:00 AM PDT
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Great article: Will there be GMO sugar in your candy? describes Hershey's lack of an answer about whether or not they will use sugar from GM beets in their products. In the past, Hershey, Mars, and others did NOT want to use sugar from GM beets and actually kept the beets "out of the ground."
Now? Sounds like they gave up. The article's author had an incredibly hard time getting answers, but the non-answers she did on whether candy makers will use sugar from GM beets get roughly amounted to "do we really have a choice?" Sigh. Good for Organic Consumers for calling for a boycott.
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Mon Aug 04, 2008 at 08:00:00 AM PDT
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Well, guys, it looks like we're boycotting Kellogg. Organic Consumers Association has called for a boycott to protest their use of sugar from Monsanto's GM beets. From their site:
"1) OCA and numerous other faith-based, consumer advocacy, and farmer focused organizations actually have carried out letter writing campaigns since Fall of 2007, urging Kellogg's, M&M Mars, Hershey's and other corporations to not source GE sugar beets. OCA network members, for example, have sent over 15 thousand letters to Kellogg's before we considered launching a boycott of Kellogg's products.
2) OCA has targeted Kellogg's specifically for several reasons. First, Kellogg's actually produces food that is widely consumed in the United States. M&M/Mars and Hershey's are candy/junk food companies that have a very small percentage of their overall line dedicated to food items. The real nutritional impact of junk food companies switching from genetically engineered high-fructose corn syrup to genetically engineered sugar (sourced from sugar beets) would be relatively insignificant in the big picture
If you shop at a farmers' market, a boycott is easy. Kind of like they say... "I've been boycotting Mercedes for years!" But watch out - Kellogg owns Morningstar Farms, a leading vegetarian brand that sells fake meat. Here is a list of all Kellogg products.
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