"FDA" news and stories

Is the Food and Drug Administration preparing to change its position on artificial food dyes?

For years the FDA has maintained that the additives that give everything from Gatorade to Cheetos their distinctive hues are perfectly safe. Currently, there are nine synthetically produced food dyes that are on the agency's list of approved "certified colors."

But one public advocacy organization is asking whether the FDA has been looking at the issue of artificial food coloring through rose-tinted glasses.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest argues that there's mounting evidence to show that artificial food dyes cause behavior changes in some children, and FDA staffers have gone so far to prepare a report for one of the agency's advisory committees detailing a possible link between food coloring and children who have attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, as MSNBC reports.

Even the most careful calorie-counters would be duped by the newfound limitations on trans-fat labeling. Those "trans fat free" foods may not be so.

Case Western Reserve University of Medicine graduate student Eric Brandt published a piece in the January/February issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion stating that the Food and Drug Administration allows foods containing less than .5 grams of trans fat to be labeled "trans fat free" or "zero trans fat," reports My Health News Daily.

"That's because the policy requires that fat amounts less than 5 grams be listed in 0.5 gram increments, and allows food producers to round down to the lower increment," reports the Daily. "Foods with more than 5 grams of fat are required to use one gram increments."

Brandt notes that eating at least three such items could take you over the daily recommended max of 1.11 grams of trans fats -- three items at .49 grams would equal 1.47 grams -- which could lead to increased risk of coronary artery disease and diabates. The article makes a call to arms (that is, the FDA) to change labeling laws to indicate trans fats starting with .1 grams, so we can finally see what those "zero trans fat" Krispy Kreme donuts are really made of.

Read "The Skinny on Fats" at KitchenDaily for more info, and click "Continue" for a video on trans-fat labling.

In the bubbling debate between genetically modified foods and organic ones, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack reportedly called for a truce in an open letter released just before the clocks struck 2011. Agricultural resolution? Not so easy, Tom.

"Complexity surrounds American agriculture today," he begins. True. By the end of 2010, federal courts had barred use of Monsanto's Roundup Ready alfalfa, even though planting continued while the USDA kept working on its Environmental Impact Statement [EIS] on the genetically engineered (GE) crop, which it completed two weeks prior to Vilsack's letter. A federal court in San Francisco ordered removal of a test plot of GE sugar beets. And the Food and Drug Administration remained indecisive over approval of GE salmon, the would-be first genetically engineered animal, which may or may not be labeled.

Vilsack doesn't appear to be pro or con for either but believes the two can cohabit. "As a regulatory agency, sound science and decisions based on this science are our priority, and science strongly supports the safety of GE alfalfa," he writes.

All you pro-organics who just felt a scrunch in your brow, follow this next line: "But agricultural issues are always complex and rarely lend themselves to simple solutions. Therefore, we have an obligation to carefully consider USDA's 2,300-page EIS, which acknowledges the potential of cross-fertilization to non-GE alfalfa."

A non-GE farmer can hope.

There's trouble in Candyland. Whole Foods and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have announced a recall of gingerbread houses produced by Rolf's Patisserie and sold in Whole Foods stores. The reason? There's a possible connection to outbreaks of Staphylococcus aureus food poisoning, according to this F.D.A. press release. It says that the assembled gingerbread houses are decorated and packaged in clear plastic wrap and sold with a Whole Foods Market scale label; some scale labels also may list "Rolf's Patisserie" as part of the description.

The recall affects all gingerbread houses sold after November 1, 2010, in Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.

The FDA adds that customers who have purchased any of the listed products from Whole Foods Market may return them to the store for a full refund. Consumers with questions may contact Whole Foods Market at 512-542-0878 weekdays between 8:00am and 5:00pm Central Standard Time.

Remember a few weeks ago when we broke down the FDA Food Safety Modernzation Act? After 70 years, the Senate had finally passed the bill after it passed in the House over a year prior. It promised to give the FDA power to issue recalls and to see procedural records kept by food producers. We said it looked to be smooth sailing to the House and then off to the President's desk. Guess we jinxed it, because the House flagged a flaw that stalled it even more: The Senate version included a fee that would be taxed on any food producer whose food is recalled. But all taxes need to be written by the House.

So it got tucked into the spending bill last week, which failed. With time running out on this lame-duck session, Food Safety was thought to be dead. But in somewhat of a Christmas miracle, perhaps, the Senate has fixed the problem and passed it unanimously late last night, with the Tester Amendment (that is, the exemption for small farmers) intact. The House and President Obama have already stated support, so hopefully the bill that House representative John Dingell (D-MI) said had more "fits and starts" than any other will finally be brought to law within the week.