TITLE: How Lunchables ended up on school lunch tray
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/interactive/2023/lunchables-school-lunch-ultraprocessed-foods/
EXCERPT: Decisions made 350 miles away in the nation’s capital — choices heavily influenced by the food industry — brought Kraft Heinz’s signature Lunchables to Raylen’s cafeteria table at Pembroke Elementary School this fall. For the first time, Lunchables are eligible to be served to nearly 30 million children under the rules of the National School Lunch Program after the company altered two of its products to qualify.
The weak standards that govern federally subsidized school lunches illustrate the power of the food industry in Congress and the outsize influence of food companies on the School Nutrition Association, which represents 50,000 school lunch personnel. While many nations have adopted more-nutritious school meals and stricter advertising standards, pizza sauce and french fries still count as vegetables for schoolchildren in the United States, and U.S. food companies remain virtually free to advertise to youngsters any way they like.
Together, these circumstances contribute to the country’s harrowing childhood obesity problem: Nearly 20 percent of children are obese, a rate nearly four times what it was in the 1970s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and much higher than those in most other countries. The rates are worse for Black, Latino and Native American children, who make up the majority of students in Robeson County classrooms, and for low-income children across the United States, who eat most of the nearly 5 billion lunches served by the federal program each year.
More than a decade after the last major overhaul of school nutrition standards, the Agriculture Department is proposing to further restrict sodium in school lunches and added sugar in cereals, flavored milks, desserts and yogurt, starting in fall of 2025 — despite some objections from industry representatives, congressional Republicans and the School Nutrition Association.
“Lunchables being approved for school food is a symptom of the greater problem,” said Carolyn Villa, the food services director for Colorado’s Boulder Valley School District, who threw away samples that Kraft Heinz sent her over the summer. “Any of these regulations that are implemented to try to improve health and lifetime-wellness outcomes for children are manipulated and bent to afford profitability for large food manufacturers.”
According to its own estimates, Kraft Heinz sees a $25 billion growth opportunity in the school lunch market, where the company has access to generations of future customers. The company noted in a May investor update that the rollout of Lunchables in schools has resulted in media exposure that was “99% positive/neutral” while it cost the marketing team virtually nothing.
TITLE: Big Dairy Is Having a Cow over the Word ‘Milk’
https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/10/big-dairy-is-having-a-cow-over-the-word-milk/
EXCERPT: Having seen their regulatory strategy curdle, they are shifting their focus from FDA headquarters in Maryland to Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are hashing out a comprehensive farm bill. The 1,000-page measure will cover everything from rural development to agricultural research for the next five years, and Big Dairy lobbyists hope to slip in a milk-censorship provision somewhere in the fine print.
They are also recruiting lawmakers to pressure the FDA. Doing the bidding of Big Business is one of the few remaining bipartisan activities. Democratic senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Republican senator Jim Risch of Idaho are leading the way, collecting signatures for a pro-censorship letter to the FDA.
Other lawmakers have resorted to publicity stunts. Republican representative Mike Simpson of Idaho, for example, has roamed grocery-store aisles placing sticky notes on cartons of plant-based milk that read: “This is not milk.” Perhaps someone should send Simpson a dictionary.
Of course, no one believes shoppers need sticky notes. The real intent has never been consumer protection. It is industry protection. Powerful groups want special favors for themselves at the expense of others.
What they fail to appreciate is the Constitution, starting with the First Amendment. If advertisers use clear, accurate language that consumers understand, then no fraud occurs — and regulators have no legitimate reason to restrict speech.
TITLE: FDA faces pressure to act nationwide on red dye in food
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/10/17/1206283813/red-dye-food-products-fda-ban
EXCERPT: When California's Environmental Protection Agency reviewed the body of evidence on synthetic dyes, they found evidence the dyes consumed in food can negatively impact children's behavior. Out of about 25 studies, more than half identified a positive association between artificial food coloring intake and behavioral outcomes.
They also reviewed dietary survey data and found a higher intake of synthetic dyes in lower income communities. "We also found Black Americans tended to have higher intake," says Asa Bradman, a public health scientist at the University of California, Merced, who helped with the state's analysis.
"I tend to err on the side of precaution," Bradman says. "I think there is good reason to remove [red No. 3] from the food supply."
In one double-blinded study, children, aged 3 to 9 years old, consumed a drink that contained synthetic dyes or a placebo drink that was dye-free. The researchers found artificial colors in the diet resulted in increased hyper-activity.
"I think the evidence is compelling from those human studies that children's consumption of synthetic food dyes can contribute to increases in symptoms like inattention, hyperactivity in some children," says Mark Miller, a scientist with California's EPA's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.
Miller has also published a review of animal studies, which indicate synthetic food dyes can affect memory and learning. He says the state's review suggests it's time for the FDA to re-evaluate synthetic dyes, based on the newer evidence.