Food Safety
Do you know what's in your food?
With all of the problems in our food system, it can be hard to find the information we need to make smart choices about the food we eat. Use this page to keep up to date on food safety issues, including pesticides, aspartame, flouridation, irraditation, toxic sludge, mad cow disease, and more.
PRESS RELEASE
March 2, 2006
CONTACT:
Ronnie Cummins 218.349.3836
Adam Eidinger 202.744.2671
WASHINGTON, DC In a partial victory for consumers across the nation, the House has delayed the vote on H.R. 4167 for a week. H.R. 4167, the "National Unity for Food Act", was set to come before the House of Representatives today. If passed, this Act will take away the power of local and state governments to require food safety warning labels on food and beverages, keeping consumers in the dark about what is truly in their food. Thus far the bill has
Read morePRESS RELEASE
CONTACT: Environmental Working Group
Bill Walker or Renee Sharp, (510) 444-0973
EWG Public Affairs, (202) 667-6982
WASHINGTON - March 3 - Following a published report that the Bush Administration is holding up a study that shows most Americans carry a toxic rocket fuel chemical in their bodies at levels close to federal safety limits, Environmental Working Group (EWG) is calling for the immediate release of the study so EPA and state agencies can take
Washington -- Federal lawmakers on Thursday sparred over a bill to pre-empt all state food safety labeling laws that are tougher than federal rules, including California's Proposition 65, which requires food manufacturers to list any cancer- or birth-defect-causing substances in their products.
The House put off a vote on the bill until next week after House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-San Dimas (Los Angeles County), concluded that lawmakers could not finish debate before many left for a post-Hurricane Katrina visit to the Gulf Coast.
But the controversy over the
Read moreAgency Trusted Industry to Change Formulas in 1990, Yet Still Finds Sodas with Benzene
WASHINGTON - February 28 - Today the Environmental Working Group (EWG) sent a letter to the FDA requesting that the Agency notify the public about the presence of two ingredients in many popular children's drinks that can mix together to form the cancer-causing chemical benzene. The FDA last addressed this problem more than 15 years ago when it entered into a voluntary agreement with the beverage industry to reformulate its products to avoid the presence
Read moreWASHINGTON - Canada's latest case of mad cow disease probably came from tainted feed, raising questions about safeguards designed to keep the disease from spreading.
The cow's age raises questions about the effectiveness of the ban, because the disease spreads only when cattle eat feed containing certain tissue from infected cattle.
Feed for other animals may still contain cattle remains and can be manufactured at the same mills that make cattle feed.
He added, "We're not ever going to be able to say with certainty thatOs where it happened and
Read moreThe food lobby is quietly pushing a bill that would set a single national set of food labeling rules -- and eliminate local control over food safety disclosures.
Some people called it a folly of know-nothing Luddites. Others praised it as an important blow against technological hubris. But no matter where you stood on the 2004 ballot measure in California's Mendocino County that banned the cultivation of GMO crops, it's generally agreed that the initiative represented all that is best about local democracy -- citizens coming together to address an issue that's important to them. And
Read moreThe latest health, diet, and environmental news all came from one place
yesterday: the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The Union's report -- "Greener Pastures: How grass-fed beef and milk contribute to healthy eating" -- finds that grass-fed cows produce meat and milk lower in unhealthy fats and higher in beneficial fatty acids, such as Omega-3 and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), than grain-fed livestock. The report also notes that grass-fed livestock farming methods do a better job of protecting water, air, and the communities that support family farms. For those of us who
Read moreFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Susanna Montezemolo
March 8, 2006
(202) 462-6262 ext. 1103
(202) 498-6746 (cell)
Washington Two leading consumer groups today criticized the House for approving a controversial bill that would wipe out at least 200 state laws without putting in place additional federal standards, with no hearings on the legislation in the eight years since it was first introduced.
"Despite the food industry¹s rhetoric, this bill is a sweeping rollback of decades of state action to protect consumers," said Susanna Montezemolo, Policy
Read moreWeb Note: Ignoring 50,000 letters and phone calls from members of the
Organic Consumers Association (as well as an equal number of calls and
letters from other public interest organizations), Congress voted yesterday to ban local and state laws requiring food safety labels. OCA and our allies have vowed to stop this law from being passed in the U.S. Senate.
WASHINGTON, DC, March 8, 2006 (ENS) The U.S. House of Representatives today passed controversial legislation that would eliminate more than 200 state food safety and public health protections.
The
Read moreWASHINGTON -- Legislation that could void hundreds of food safety warnings in California and other states passed the House on Wednesday after heated debate.
Long sought by the food industry, the bill would prohibit states from having food-contamination standards and warning labels that are stricter than federal requirements. Exemptions could be granted if the Food and Drug Administration determines they are needed and they "would not unduly burden interstate commerce."
California's
Read morePages
for Food SafetyDownloads
Videos
Scientific Studies
