Posted by Adam Kuban, January 15, 2008 at 6:00 PM
That does it, folks: As was expected last week, The FDA today officially declared certain cloned livestock safe to eat. From the L.A. Times:
Initially, only a small amount of steaks, pork and dairy products derived from clones will become available in grocery stores. But over the next three to five years—after ranchers have time to clone their most prized animals and those clones are able to breed—the products will become routine on store shelves, industry executives said.
Cloned cattle, pigs, and goats are aces to eat, the agency said, but as for cloned sheep—well, there's not enough info regarding them or other species for the government to OK. So put down your knives and forks if you were waiting for cloned lamb, chickens, or—I don't know—squirrel.
Posted by Alaina Browne, August 23, 2007 at 12:30 PM
Good news today for members of the Clean Plate Club. The Onion reports on the FDA's approval of seconds:
Addressing what it calls a 'growing epidemic of cravings and hankerings," the federal agency recommended redesigning food labels to prominently display extra-serving sizes and pledged to better educate consumers on how to make informed additional-portion choices at home and in restaurants.
I think this neatly answers the question being bandied about on the Freakonomics blog: "What is the Right Way to Think About the Obesity ‘Epidemic’?"
Posted by Ed Levine, July 16, 2007 at 10:30 AM
Just how porous is our imported-fish inspection process? Taras Grescoe says we should be very scared. Why? Because the FDA, which is responsible for fish inspections, physically inspects 1.34 percent of the imported fish containers that come into this country and tests just 0.59 percent. The European Union, on the other hand, inspects 20 percent of its imported fish containers.
How is our wonderfully protective federal government dealing with this problematic situation? By cutting the budget for FDA in-country foreign fish inspections to zero!
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, April 23, 2007 at 3:30 PM
Leave it to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start messing with chocolate, one of life's perfect foods. The Chocolate Manufacturers have petitioned the government to change the basic formula of chocolate in order to use vegetable fat substitutes in place of cocoa butter, and to use milk substitutes in the place of nutritionally superior milk. Do these people have no shame? Will they be forced to call the new product "milk substitute chocolate?" Got a nice ring, doesn't it?
Posted by Nathalie Jordi, January 15, 2007 at 4:36 PM
The FDA has amended its food labeling regulations to expand the umbrella of foods that may legally take the moniker "lean." The legalese refers specifically to that hard-to-qualify category of foods known as "mixed dishes not measurable with a cup." Ahem. Nestlé is behind the petition for change. Will Washington never cease to surprise us?
