As expected, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Food Safety Modernization Act (H.R. 2751) as passed by the Senate. The bill now goes to the President, who is expected to sign it into law. A copy of the bill is available here (scroll down to …
By Ricardo Carvajal – Capping a week-long flurry of legislative activity, the Senate reportedly passed the Food Safety Modernization Act by a voice vote Sunday night. The legislation now returns to the House, where approval is likely. Given that the President’s signature is certain, it now appears …
By Riëtte van Laack – On December 15, 2010, FDA took several steps to increase its enforcement against products that are marketed as dietary supplements but contain analogs of, or the same active ingredients as, FDA-approved drugs, or other substances that do not qualify as dietary …
By Ricardo Carvajal – The massive spending bill to which food safety legislation was attached (and that also includes provisions on rare and neglected diseases) – the Fiscal Year 2011 Omnibus Appropriations Act – has been pronounced dead. Although Congress may yet find another vehicle for …
Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, P.C.’s Ricardo Carvajal will be presenting "Food Safety: Unintended Components/Contaminants of Food" at the Food and Drug Law Institute's ("FDLI’s") January 24-25, 2011 conference, "Introduction to Food Law and Regulation: How the Government Regulates the Food Industry," which is part of FDLI’s Food Week …
By Ricardo Carvajal – FTC announced a proposed settlement with Dannon over the latter’s allegedly deceptive advertising claims for two of its probiotic products, Activia and DanActive. FTC’s complaint alleged that Dannon explicitly or implicitly represented that one serving of Activia relieved temporary irregularity and helped …
The Washington Legal Foundation recently published an article written by HPM attorneys, Ricardo Carvajal and Nisha P. Shah, on the February 2010 Government Accountability Office ("GAO") report that criticized FDA's general oversight of uses of ingredients that are generally recognized as safe (“GRAS”) and the agency's …
Hyman, Phelps & McNamara’s Paul Hyman and Ricardo Carvajal recently published an article in Food Chemical News on the cost of inadequate substantiation of health-related claims made in the labeling and advertising of foods. Although FDA appears reluctant to take an aggressive stance with respect …
By Ricardo Carvajal – In a strongly worded opinion, a federal judge has ordered that genetically modified sugar beet stecklings (seedlings) planted pursuant to permits issued by USDA be pulled from the ground. As we noted in a prior blog posting, USDA/APHIS was found in violation …
By Ricardo Carvajal No sooner had we blogged on Senate passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act than Roll Call reported that the bill might be doomed by a constitutional flaw – namely that § 107 of the bill proposes fees, and Article I, section 7 …
By Ricardo Carvajal - FDA announced that its Food Advisory Committee will meet on March 30 and 31, 2011, “to discuss whether available relevant data demonstrate a link between children’s consumption of synthetic color additives in food and adverse effects on behavior.” Earlier this year, the European …
By Ricardo Carvajal – By a vote of 73 to 25 (see the roll call here), the Senate has passed S. 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act. As we noted in a prior posting, the Senate HELP Committee released a compromise agreement in August that would …
By Ricardo Carvajal – An article in the current edition of the Food and Drug Law Institute’s Update discusses a recent development in the European Union's regulation on health claims used in food labeling that could have the effect of suppressing publication of scientific research on …
By Ricardo Carvajal – A California district court dismissed a class action lawsuit alleging that baked-goods products manufactured by Hostess Brands, Inc. are marketed in violation of California law because they are promoted as containing “0 grams of Trans Fat” despite containing partially hydrogenated oils. The …
