Login
U.S. Food Safety Regulators Expand Bird Flu Testing in Milk Products
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has begun testing more dairy products for evidence of the bird flu virus as outbreaks spread among dairy herds across the country.
More than 120 dairy herds in 12 states have tested positive for bird flu since March, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Federal officials have warned that further spread among dairy cows could heighten the risk of human infections.
The focus of additional testing, which will sample 155 products, is to ensure that pasteurization inactivates the virus, said Don Prater, acting director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, on a call with reporters. Prior FDA testing of 297 retail dairy samples came back negative for evidence of the virus.
More than 690 people who were exposed to infected or suspected infected animals have been monitored for flu symptoms, and 51 people who developed flu-like symptoms have been tested, Demetre Daskalakis, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said on the press call.
Starbucks Debuts Fruity Energy Drink Less Than Two Months After Panera Discontinues Highly Caffeinated Charged Lemonade
Starbucks on Tuesday launched a drink at stores nationwide called Iced Energy, which has up to 205 milligrams of caffeine in it — about the same amount as six cans of Coke. The fruity energy drink debuts less than two months after bakery-cafe chain Panera Bread announced it was discontinuing its controversial Charged Lemonade, a beverage that lawsuits blamed for two deaths and referred to as a “dangerous energy drink.”
Starbucks’ new drink comes amid a slew of similar options elsewhere. In February, as Panera reeled from the multiple lawsuits over its Charged Lemonade, Dunkin’ introduced SPARKD’ Energy beverages, fizzy energy drinks with guarana and taurine that come in peach and berry flavors and have up to 192 milligrams of caffeine. Smoothie King offers lemonade refreshers that have up to 125 milligrams of “natural caffeine” from green coffee beans.
The energy drink market as a whole has exploded: As of mid-May, annual U.S. sales of energy drinks had surged to nearly $22 billion, up from about $13.5 billion at the end of 2019, according to Circana, a Chicago-based market research firm.
A growing number of countries have banned sales of energy drinks to children, with Russia being the latest country to move to halt sales to those under 18. In the U.S., multiple state-led efforts to do the same have failed.
Bird Flu Snapshot: USDA Secretary Urges Farmers to Take Protective Measures
As the H5N1 outbreak in dairy herds approaches the three-month mark, America’s top animal health official is calling on farmers to step up the use of personal protective equipment, limit traffic onto their farms, and increase cleaning and disinfection practices in their barns and milking parlors.
“The more we learn about H5N1, the more we understand that good biosecurity is a critically important path to containing the virus,” U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack wrote in an Agri-Pulse op-ed on Friday.
Epidemiological investigations have revealed that the disease likely spreads between dairies in a community through the movement of people — on boots or clothing — and on vehicles and equipment, he wrote, emphasizing the need for more stringent hygiene measures.
Vilsack’s plea comes at a time when it’s becoming clear that in addition to slow-walking the testing of animals and farmworkers and resisting the use of personal protective equipment, the dairy industry is also struggling to effectively separate sick cows and limit their movement. In a recent USDA survey of affected farms, 60% of respondents acknowledged moving animals off the farm after some of their cows started showing bird flu symptoms.
A U.S. Court Found Chiquita Guilty of Murder in Colombia. What Does the Ruling Mean for Other U.S. Food Corporations Abroad?
There is no justice for the families of massacred banana workers in Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Their deaths are only remembered by the massacre’s sole survivor, José Arcadio Segundo, who spends the rest of his life trying to convince others in his town of what he witnessed. In the book’s final scene, even the town is “wiped out by the wind and exiled from the memory of men.” The fictional banana company’s power is so vast that it can bend history and memory — and murder its workers with impunity.
The novel is a parable for how the United Fruit Company, the U.S. multinational giant that rebranded as Chiquita in 1990, sustained its banana plantations across Latin America through ruthless, bloody tactics, confronting consequences only rarely. The fictional massacre is based on real events: In 1928, Colombian troops killed striking United Fruit Company workers in a town not far from where Márquez grew up.
Despite this history, the banana giant’s pattern of violent repression wiped out by the wind has arrived at a new chapter. After a 17-year legal struggle, survivors of Chiquita’s violence in Colombia received a rare, groundbreaking legal victory. A South Florida jury found the U.S.-headquartered agribusiness liable for financing murders carried out by the right-wing parliamentary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC) between 1997 and 2004.
During these years, Chiquita secretly paid upwards of $1.7 million to the AUC, a designated terrorist organization, to act as a security force pacifying the banana-growing region in the midst of Colombia’s decades-long civil war.
This marks the first time a U.S. court held a corporation liable for human rights abuses committed in another country — which lawyers and advocates describe as a historic legal milestone against transnational corporate abuse.
Dollar Tree Left Recalled Apple Sauce Pouches on Store Shelves Too Long, FDA Says
After a recall was issued last year for lead-tainted applesauce pouches linked to illnesses in over 500 children, the discount retailer Dollar Tree failed to remove all products from store shelves for too long, federal officials said Tuesday.
In a warning letter sent to the company, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said WanaBana apple puree products remained in stores in several states through late December, two months after Dollar Tree was first told about the recall.
Officials at the Virginia-based company told the agency that it refused sales of the products at registers, but the FDA said that was “not an effective measure” because at least one child in Washington state ate a recalled fruit pouch in a store before a purchase was made.
As a seller of the pouches, Dollar Tree was notified of the recall. However, subsequent checks of stores “revealed that you continued to offer the recalled WanaBana Apple Cinnamon Fruit Puree pouches on store shelves well after the recall was initiated, despite FDA’s numerous attempts to bring this serious issue to your attention,” the agency said in its warning letter.
Consumers Confused About ‘Ultra-Processed Food’
“Ultra-processed food” (UPF) is a hot topic these days, but what exactly does it mean? And how do consumers feel about it? To help answer those and related questions, Innova Market Insights recently surveyed U.S. consumers, asking about their attitudes, beliefs and concerns about ultra-processed foods and how often they consume them.
Only 19% of the consumers Innova surveyed acknowledged they consume UPF daily. But since consumers don’t always have a precise definition of ultra-processed food — with 44% identifying it as fast food and junk food — the market research company noted that factor may limit consumers’ ability to rid their diets of UPF even if they plan to do so.
Ultra-processed foods are industrial formulations made entirely or mostly from substances extracted from foods, derived from food constituents, or synthesized in laboratories from food substrates or other organic sources, according to the Nova classification system created in 2009 by researchers at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ultra-processed foods often include cookies, ice cream, shakes, ready-to-eat meals, soft drinks, other sugary drinks, hamburgers and nuggets.
