Food and Beverage News and Trends

This regular publication by DLA Piper lawyers focuses on helping clients navigate the ever-changing business, legal and regulatory landscape.

First federal conference on hunger, nutrition and health since 1969. On August 29, the Biden Administration set the date of September 28 for the first White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health since 1969. At the conference, which will be held in Washington, DC and will be live streamed, the Administration will announce a national food strategy that identifies the steps the federal government plans to take to address the intersections of food, hunger, nutrition and health. The Administration hopes to catalyze both the public and private sectors to achieve these goals. The broad goals the White House announced for the conference are to improve food access and affordability; integrate nutrition and health; empower consumers to make healthy choices; support physical activity for all; and enhance research into nutrition and food security.

Foundation announces leaders of major review of FDA food programs. On August 17, the Reagan-Udall Foundation, a nonprofit foundation set up by Congress to help the FDA achieve its missions, announced that former Commissioner of Food and Drugs Jane Henney and former FDA Chief of Staff Lauren Silvis will lead a new operational evaluation of the FDA’s human foods and tobacco work. Henney will lead the evaluation team focused on human foods, while Silvis will lead the team focused on tobacco. The project – essentially a top-to-bottom review of the FDA’s food and tobacco regulatory programs – was announced by Commissioner Robert Califf in July. Califf said at that time that the review of the FDA’s food programs would include “its structure, function, leadership, authorities and funding.” The foundation’s reports will be due on October 18.

Vilsack explains the USDA’s recent action concerning Salmonella in poultry. USDA Tom Vilsack, in an August 24 opinion article published in The Hill, wrote that every year, there are about 1.35 million Salmonella infections in the nation, one-quarter of them related to the consumption of poultry. Vilsack said this means that it’s time for the department to re-evaluate its approach to controlling Salmonella in poultry. Accordingly, the USDA has announced it “will take the critical step of declaring Salmonella as an adulterant — or substance that can compromise the safety of a product — in breaded and stuffed raw chicken products, a decision that will enable us to stop their sale when we find contamination. When a food product is adulterated, it cannot be sold to the public.” Vilsack concluded in the article that this step is important “because it is the first time that Salmonella is being declared an adulterant in a class of raw poultry products. But it is just the first step in our efforts.”

Canada begins transition away from open-net pen salmon farming. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada has announced it is taking steps to transition away from open-net pen aquaculture in the coastal waters of British Columbia. After releasing a proposed framework for establishing a plan to end open-net pen fishing in British Columbia, the DFO in the coming months will host roundtables and seek input from Indigenous leaders, local governments, key stakeholders and conservation organizations, the aquaculture industry and the public. This input will be used to create a transition plan with four main objectives: to adopt alternative aquaculture production methods that minimize interaction between farmed and wild salmon; to increase transparency regarding government assessment and scientific information surrounding aquaculture management; to increase collaborative planning and decision-making with First Nations, and; to increase innovation and attract investment into alternative production technologies in British Columbia. The open-net pen transition plan is expected to be finalized in spring 2023.

California moves to prohibit young people from buying diet pills. On August 24, the California state legislature passed AB 1341, a bill that would prohibit retail establishments in the state from selling, transferring, or furnishing dietary supplements for weight loss or over-the-counter diet pills to anyone under 18 years of age. Physicians nationwide have become concerned about the effects of these supplements on young people. The bill now goes to Governor Gavin Newsom for his signature. Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, the author of the legislation, said, “We need to do more to protect our youth from the harmful effects that weight loss supplements and over-the-counter diet pills have on our youth. With easy access, our youth are subject to eating disorders and many other health implications. We need to stand up to an industry that puts profit over people.”

CDC reports outbreak of E. coli in four states, with 84 people sickened. On August 25, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that an outbreak of E. coli has sickened 84 people in four states, with 38 of them hospitalized. No deaths have been reported. The CDC said it has not yet pinned down the cause of the outbreak, but many of the sick people reported that they had recently eaten sandwiches with romaine lettuce at Wendy’s restaurants in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania before falling ill. Based on this information, Wendy’s has taken the precautionary measure of removing the romaine lettuce being used in sandwiches from restaurants in that region. Investigators are working to confirm whether romaine lettuce is the source of this outbreak and whether romaine lettuce used in Wendy’s sandwiches was served or sold at other businesses.

Canadian fresh cherry market expands to South Korea. The Government of Canada has announced it has gained market access to South Korea for British Columbia’s fresh cherries. Canada’s sweet cherry exports are significantly expanding – in 2021, the value of these exports grew to $78 million. Sweet cherries are Canada’s second largest fruit crop, after blueberries, and 95 percent of sweet cherries produced in Canada come from British Columbia. The Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement, implemented in 2015, has significantly increased bilateral trade between the two countries by way of tariff reductions and the establishment of predictable business environments for certain industries.

UN body seeks to get more Ukrainian food exports back onstream. On August 23, the United Nations Development Program signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Ukraine’s Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food to try to help that country restore its food exports to their prewar status. In the period from February 24 to August 15 this year, around 10 million tons of core agricultural products were exported from Ukraine; in the same period last year, the figure was nearly 20 million tons. The UN organization and the Ukrainian ministry will cooperate on developing and promoting digital tools, improving access to “green financing” for Ukrainian agriculture producers, and providing climate-smart tools and technologies to support low-carbon agriculture. The signing of the MOU is only part of the UN’s efforts to unblock Ukrainian agricultural exports and ameliorate the global food crisis. See some of our coverage of the Black Sea Grain Initiative here.

New study casts doubt on inertness of non-nutritive sweeteners. Since the late 1800s, non-nutritive sweeteners have generally been viewed by scientists as additives that deliver all the sweetness of sugar with none of the calories. They have also long been believed to have no effect on the human body. But an article published in the journal Cell on August 19 challenges this notion, concluding that these sugar substitutes are not inert and, in fact, that some of them can alter the microbiomes of human who consume them in a way that can change their blood sugar levels. The lead researcher for the study said, “We need to raise awareness of the fact that non-nutritive sweeteners are not inert to the human body as we originally believed. With that said, the clinical health implications of the changes they may elicit in humans remain unknown and merit future long-term studies.”