On Tuesday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee unanimously approved the President’s nomination of Dr. Robert Califf as the next commissioner of food and drugs. (Senator Bernie Sanders, I-VT, who would have voted against the nomination, was not present at the January 12th committee session.)…
Last year, we wrote about a growing trend of local jurisdictions regulating children’s products, primarily toys and apparel. One such jurisdiction, Albany County, NY, enacted a far-reaching ordinance, “Local Law J of 2014,” that prohibited the sale of children’s products containing seven chemicals of “high concern” (see previous…
Has your business experienced difficulty identifying on the CPSC’s website which product safety regulations are potentially applicable to your products? In an effort to better guide industry, particularly new product makers and small businesses, through the maze of CPSC regulatory requirements and guidance, the CPSC rolled out earlier…
The first round goes to the industry: on December 9, 2015, the Central District of California dismissed the complaint in Barber v. Nestle USA, a key bellwether case in a new wave of class action litigation related to California’s Transparency in Supply Chains Act. The Barber plaintiffs’ theory…
The 2016 Omnibus Spending Bill recently passed by both houses of Congress ushers in important developments in the food safety, labeling, and nutrition spaces. Following House and Senate votes December 18, it now goes to President Obama for his signature.
On December 2, 2015, the Grocery Manufacturers Association announced SmartLabel, a pioneering technology initiative that gives manufacturers and retailers an important new channel for disclosing information about their products directly to consumers. Through SmartLabel, simply by searching online or scanning the bar code on a product’s label, consumers…
A courtroom battle concerning a manufacturer’s alleged false marketing of allegedly foreign-produced products as “Made in USA” is potentially nearing a resolution. On November 30, 2015, the lead plaintiff in Paz v. AG Adriano Goldschmied, Inc. et al. asked the court for preliminary approval of a $4 million…
Last week will undoubtedly be marked in the annals of Food and Drug Administration history as an important milestone for the Agency. On November 19, 2015, FDA approved the first genetically engineered (GE) animal intended for use as human food – AquaBounty Technologies’s AquAdvantage Salmon, a transgenic Atlantic…
On November 12, 2015, FDA is scheduled to publish a notice in the Federal Register announcing a request for public comments on the use of the term “natural” in food labeling. As the Agency points out, it has been under pressure in recent years from many stakeholders to…
The International Campaign Against Microbeads in Cosmetics is most likely celebrating this week, following the California State Legislature’s passage of a bill that would prohibit the use of plastic microbeads in personal care products after January 1, 2020. The bill, AB 888, now heads to Governor Jerry Brown’s…