NRDC to launch attack on food ingredient approvals

[proverbialwisdom]

Last edited Sat Sep 21, 2013, 11:58 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/nrdc-food-ingredient-approvals-96570.html
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=B846909A-A5E3-4A27-A8DA-631FD66F9DED

NRDC to launch attack on food ingredient approvals
By HELENA BOTTEMILLER EVICH | 9/10/13 4:30 PM EDT

The Natural Resources Defense Council is best known for climate activism and celebrity fundraisers, but now the environmental powerhouse is escalating its work in another area: food policy.

By hiring two top food additive researchers — Tom Neltner and Maricel Maffini — NRDC is positioning itself to launch an aggressive campaign for much stronger regulation around the way the Food and Drug Administration approves the use of those food ingredients you can’t pronounce.

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Both Neltner and Maffini are coming from the Pew Charitable Trusts, where they delivered a series of groundbreaking reports following a three-year study of the food additive approval process that wraps up this month. The Pew reports suggest the food industry has too much control over the way such ingredients as xanthan gum, maltodextrin and polyglutamic acid have been granted FDA’s generally recognized as safe, or GRAS, status, which allows them to be used in the food supply without agency approval.

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The group’s capstone report could be released as early as next week and is expected to call for reforms, which could include congressional action to give the FDA more authority.

NRDC is planning to use Pew’s research and recommendations as the framework for its advocacy campaign. However, where the Pew group might have taken a more cooperative approach to working with the food industry and regulatory agencies, NRDC isn’t likely to pull any punches. The organization has a long history of taking on controversial chemicals and creating headaches for industry, enlisting the help of such celebrities as Leonardo DiCaprio, Scarlett Johansson and Ke$ha in both fundraising and activism.

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NRDC will focus on “whatever works” to strengthen food additive oversight, Greer says. This could include a mix of litigation, lobbying Congress and the FDA, and “playing the outside game,” which means reaching out directly to consumers and working with state and local groups to push their agendas forward.

MORE.

MORE:

http://www.nrdc.org/health/fda/
http://www.nrdc.org/food/default.asp

[proverbialwisdom]

1. Only 1 in 8 chemicals that FDA recommended be evaluated for reproductive or development problems...

http://www.pewhealth.org/projects/food-additives-project-85899367220

http://www.pewhealth.org/other-resource/pew-examines-gaps-in-toxicity-data-for-chemicals-allowed-in-food-85899493633

Aug 14, 2013
Project: Food Additives Project

The peer-reviewed journal Reproductive Toxicology published a paper from The Pew Charitable Trusts' food additives project examining the data used to make safety recommendations for chemicals added to food sold in the United States. The analysis of three major sources of toxicology information found significant gaps in the data for chemicals that are added to food and food packaging.

Pew’s analysis reveals:

* The Food and Drug Administration or industry decided that almost two-thirds of known additives were safe without having fed the additives to lab animals. This is based on Pew’s analysis of data reported in FDA, National Institutes of Health, or other leading toxicology databases.

* FDA’s own database on chemicals added directly to food indicates that:

Only one in five chemicals has been evaluated using the simplest lab animal test recommended by FDA to evaluate safety.
Only one in eight chemicals that FDA recommended be evaluated for reproductive or development problems had evidence it was tested for these effects.

* The lack of data means that often we don’t know whether these chemicals pose a health risk to the hundreds of millions of Americans who eat food with untested chemical additives.

The paper analyzed and compared data from the FDA’s Priority-based Assessment of Food Additives database, the Accelrys Toxicity Database of chemical studies, and the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s TOXLINE database to determine what testing has been done.

The authors note that the current regulatory structure for food additive safety in the United States was approved by Congress in 1958 and allows manufacturers to add chemicals deemed "generally recognized as safe" or "GRAS," to food without review by the FDA. Manufacturers sometimes voluntarily report such safety decisions to FDA.

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http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_detail.aspx?id=1203

[proverbialwisdom]

2. Are You Eating This Ingredient Banned All over the World?

http://foodbabe.com/2013/09/23/are-you-eating-this-ingredient-banned-all-over-the-world/

Are You Eating This Ingredient Banned All over the World?
Food Babe, September 23, 2013

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• Azodicarbonamide is a yellow orangish powder, more commonly used commercially in the creation of foamed plastics - like yoga mats, shoe soles, floor mats and window gaskets.

• The FDA allows food companies to use azodicarbonamide as a flour bleaching agent and dough conditioner in any food product giving it a status of GRAS or "Generally Regarded As Safe".

• But, the FDA doesn't even keep track of the companies who use azodicarbionamide as an ingredient. The lack of information leads the FDA to not update or include an toxicity information about this ingredient in its EAFUS or "Everything Added to Food in the United States" database.

• When a truck carrying azodicarbonamide overturned on a Chicago highway in 2001, it prompted city officials to issue the highest hazardous materials alert and evacuate people within a half mile radius! Many of the people on the scene complained of burning eyes and skin irritation as a result. (Source: Pandora's Lunchbox by Melanie Warner)

• The U.K. has recognized azodicarbonamide as a potential cause of asthma if inhaled, and advises against its use in people who have sensitivity to food dye allergies and other common allergies in food, because it can exacerbate the symptoms.

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Straight to the source: http://foodbabe.com/2013/09/23/are-you-eating-this-ingredient-banned-all-over-the-world/

[proverbialwisdom]

3. Meat Industry’s Use Of Drug Banned In 160 Countries Leads To Suit against FDA.

http://www.offthegridnews.com/2013/11/09/meat-industrys-use-of-drug-banned-in-160-countries-leads-to-suit/

Meat Industry’s Use Of Drug Banned In 160 Countries Leads To Suit

Written by: Tara Dodrill
November 9, 2013

Food safety advocates have filed a lawsuit against the FDA over the alleged withholding of information on ractopamine, a growth hormone used within the meat industry that is banned in more than 160 countries.

If Natural News statistics are accurate, ractopamine is currently present in 80 percent of the cattle and pig farming operations in the United States. The FDA lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California and raises concerns about both animal and human safety if the growth drug is allowed to remain in use in the United States. The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) and Center for Food Safety (CFS) co-filed the suit.

The growth hormone is reportedly addictive and is known as a beta-agonist.

Countries which do not allow the use of the drug in animals includes the European Union, Taiwan, China and Russia. In the United States the drug is sold under the names Topmax for turkeys, Paylean for pigs, and Optaflexx for cows.

While the effects of ractopamine on animals is already known, the potential impact on human beings remains a mystery. One European study found that the growth hormone caused increased heart rates and “heart-pounding sensations,” according to the Center for Food Safety. One participant in the study reportedly dropped out of the focus group due to the adverse effects on the individual’s health.

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The Cornucopia Institute had this to say about ractopamine:

Two cousin drugs of ractopamine, clenbuterol and zilpaterol, cause such adrenalin effects in humans they are banned by the Olympics. Cyclist Alberto Contador failed a Tour de France anti-doping test in 2010 for levels of clenbuterol which he said he got from eating meat. Clenbuterol has been banned or restricted in meat after human toxicities.

The Talanta chemistry journal noted after the incident that the use of highly active beta-agonists as growth promoters was not appropriate because of the “potential hazard for human and animal health.”

The Animal Legal Defense Fund and the Center for Food Safety spent more than 18 months meeting and communicating with the FDA in their attempt to garner the missing 464 pages of information about ractopamine. An excerpt from the lawsuit say the two groups requested details about the effects of the growth drug on “target animal or human liver form and function, kidney form and function, urethral and prostate effects, and tumor development.” If the growth drug used by the majority of livestock producers could cause a negative impact on any of the organs or bodily functions noted in the FDA lawsuit, the public has a right to know, the groups say.

VIDEO

COMMENT:

First, recognize that 40,000 Americans die on our highways every year. Illness from ractopine in our food is so rare, if it occurs at all, doesn’t show up as any change at all in the statistics. It’s been used for several decades now without discernible health effects.

Nothing is “perfectly” safe, but our food supply is safe enough that nobody should fear it.

This article exhibits the principle I suggested in comments about GMO labeling: if it’s banned or we need a warning, it MUST be bad for us. Wrong. The ban in those countries has to do with politics and economics, denying an export market to us. Like China with melamine in their baby formula cares about health?

[proverbialwisdom]

4. Oct 1, 2013: FDA to Withdraw Approvals of Arsenic in Animal Feed.

http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/press-releases/2620/fda-to-withdraw-approvals-of-arsenic-in-animal-feed

FDA to Withdraw Approvals of Arsenic in Animal Feed
October 1st, 2013

Win for Public Health as Legal Pressure of Food Safety and Agriculture Groups Compels Agency and Industry to Act

Late yesterday, under threat of a lawsuit, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) responded to a nearly four-year-old petition, calling for the immediate withdrawal of the vast majority of arsenic-containing compounds used as feed additives for chickens, turkeys and hogs. A lawsuit filed by Center for Food Safety (CFS) on behalf of CFS, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), and seven other U.S. food safety, agriculture, public health, and environmental groups compelled the FDA to respond. FDA will withdraw three of the four arsenicals and all drug approvals associated with them. Of the 101 drug approvals for arsenic-based animal drugs, 98 will be withdrawn.

“The withdrawal of these harmful feed additives is a major victory for consumers and the health of our food system. It is unfortunate that legal pressure from outside groups was necessary to spur action by FDA, yet in the end, we are pleased that FDA listened to our scientific objections and is now working to rid arsenic from our meat supply,” said Paige Tomaselli, senior attorney with Center for Food Safety.

“The actions by FDA and industry confirm what we’ve been saying for seven years, the use of arsenic in animal feed is not necessary and poses needless risk to public health,” said Ben Lilliston, vice president for program at IATP. “The FDA’s response is long overdue to reduce exposure to arsenic and should launch a more comprehensive evaluation of health risks associated with animal feed produced by the pharmaceutical industry.”

Arsenic is added to poultry feed for the purposes of inducing faster weight gain on less feed, and creating the perceived appearance of a healthy color in meat from chickens, turkeys and hogs. A 2006 IATP report estimated that more than 70 percent of all U.S. chickens raised for meat are fed arsenic, and testing of supermarket bought and fast food chicken found that much of it contained some level of arsenic.

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