Posts tagged as fda

Canned tuna, while tasty and convenient, is also a source of high levels of mercury, and the FDA could be doing more to warn consumers about it.

By now, most of us are aware of the potential risk of mercury in our seafood and how it can be detrimental to our health. We’re familiar with the various warnings, in particular, for women of childbearing age, pregnant/nursing women, and children. It might be surprising however, that canned tuna — a food item many of us include in our diets because it’s considered nutritious, tasty and inexpensive — might also contain high levels of mercury. Read more…

Great news on the triclosan front: the EPA finally published our petition! Almost one year ago, Food & Water Watch and Beyond Pesticides, along with 84 other health and consumer groups, submitted a petition calling for a ban on triclosan. Not only has EPA finally acknowledged our concerns, they are asking for public comments! Read more…

Do you care where your seafood comes from? The National Fisheries Institute, a trade organization for the seafood import industry, thinks you don't.

The customer is always right. But is the customer always informed? Every day, money is made in this country based on the premise that most consumers don’t care about information pertaining to the products they buy. The imported seafood industry banks on it. Read more…

A Food & Water Watch-initiated FOIA request yielded disturbing e-mails from scientists at FWS, expressing their concerns about GE salmon.

The Scottish-born American naturalist John Muir once warned, “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” Those words are certainly appropriate to call upon now.

November 22, just three days before many of us sit down to Thanksgiving dinner, is the FDA’s deadline for public comments on the approval of genetically engineered salmon. (Technically, it’s the deadline for comments regarding whether or not GE salmon should be labeled — it should — but let’s not go down that road until we’ve made a much bigger point.) We’ve reached a critical juncture in this roller coaster-like process, which is why our latest letter to the FDA is so timely and so very interesting. Read more…

Oops. 4,000 salmon escaped from the Loch Duart Salmon Farm in Scotland on November 9, according to IntraFish Media. But don’t worry about it because Loch Duart is sorry. No harm, no foul, right?  Wrong. Read more…

Today, as we await the results of elections that once again reflect the stark contrast between the ideologies of the Democratic and Republican parties, one issue has inspired bipartisan cooperation. Even in the face of midterm elections, both sides of the aisle have managed to set aside their differences to address a critical issue facing consumers. Democrats and Republicans alike are reminding the FDA that the public is not happy with their haphazard consideration of whether to approve genetically-engineered salmon — the first ever GE animal — for public consumption. Read more…

Maine Senator Olympia Snowe just joined the ranks of those who are expressing serious concerns about the FDA’s potential approval of GE salmon for the marketplace. Snowe wrote a letter to FDA Commissioner of Food and Drugs Dr. Margaret Hamburg, asking the FDA to halt the current review process, which she described as “inadequate and inappropriate” and requested that the FDA commit to holding more public hearings to allow for feedback. Although she is critical of the process, Snowe has not officially come out against the approval of GE salmon, she is the 13th senator to express concern about FDA’s approval process. You can check out the press release at Snowe’s website.

Check out this blog post from Food & Water Watch Western Region Director Elanor Starmer. The blog was posted on Grist and it’s about the controversy surrounding the Food Safety Modernization Act. Find out why our colleague dares to ask, “Can Congress make a food-safety omelet without breaking the wrong eggs?” Read more…

The debate over GE salmon has uncovered many questions about the FDA’s approval process and about the data AquaBounty provided to the FDA to prove that the fish is safe to eat. A few reader comments from GE salmon proponents have suggested that critics of GE salmon, and the FDA process that governs its approval, are not supportive of technological advances. As one commenter put it, “Why are you guys anti-science?” Read more…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit overruled part of an Ohio labeling ban. The ban would have prevented producers from labeling their milk as "artificial hormone-free."

Last week, Ohio’s Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals re-instituted the right of dairy processors to label their products as “rbGH-free,” “rbST-free,” or “artificial hormone free,” if their cows aren’t treated with those substances. The ruling overturned a statewide ban —the most restrictive milk regulation in the U.S. — that prevented dairy processors from identifying their products as artificial hormone-free. Read more…