Overlawyered » CSPI

CSPI suit: Fruit by the Foot promotion left out unfavorable facts

Walter Olson — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:24:41 +0000

The promotional claims that General Mills makes about its snack product seem to be accurate enough, but the busybody Center for Science in the Public Interest says the company should be calling attention to other, less positive nutritional facts too. Stephen Richer wonders whether dating profiles are going to have to begin listing the candidate’s less appealing qualities. [WLF Legal Pulse]

Tags: advertising, CSPI, eat drink and be merry, obesity

CSPI suit: Fruit by the Foot promotion left out unfavorable facts is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

If you drink more than 1000 cans of cola a day…

Walter Olson — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:16:45 +0000

… you may want to know more about the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s “caramel coloring” cancer scare (earlier). Pediatric Insider and Abnormal Use provide some needed perspective.

Tags: Coca-Cola, CSPI, eat drink and be merry

If you drink more than 1000 cans of cola a day… is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Scare du jour: caramel coloring in sodas

Walter Olson — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 13:59:03 +0000

It’s long been known that the processes by which food is browned, whether in the frying pan, grill, rotisserie or stewpot, generate a variety of chemicals with alarmingly hard-to-pronounce names. David Oliver thinks the flap over 4-methylimidazole in the familiar cola ingredient, “caramel coloring,” is likely to go the same way as the flap over supposed cancer risk from acrylamide in French fries, potato chips and many other foods.

P.S. Per commenter Jerry, I’ve jumped to conclusions, and the “caramel coloring” found in sodas is generated by other chemical processes, not by caramelization.

Tags: CSPI, eat drink and be merry, food safety

Scare du jour: caramel coloring in sodas is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

July 11 roundup

Walter Olson — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 05:05:04 +0000

Update: Australian judge tells Men at Work to pay 5% of royalties to “Kookaburra” owner, far less than was demanded [Lowering the Bar, earlier here and here]
McDonald’s CEO pushes back vs. ogrish CSPI’s anti-Happy Meal campaign [Stoll, Mangu-Ward] “Milk, Coke and the Calorie Police” [Jason Kuznicki, Cato]
“Lawyer sues basketball star LeBron James, alleging he is his father” [CNN, BLT] Update: judge tosses suit.
Small business tort liability costs estimated at $133 billion [NERA study (PDF) for Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform (press release) via PoL]
Crawlers, robots.txt and fear of litigation: “Some closure on my collision with Facebook” [Pete Warden]
Now what was Citizens United supposed to open the floodgates for, exactly? [Bainbridge]
DOJ “entered into undisclosed agreement with Amex to freeze out the employment of exec who ultimately was cleared of wrongdoing” [Podgor, Kirkendall via Steele]
Easter egg in financial regulation bill could result in new pressure for gender, ethnic quotas across wide sectors of economy [Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Real Clear Politics; Mark Perry with some figures on the degree of gender balance in Dodd's and Frank's committees]

Tags: Australia, campaign regulation, CSPI, Facebook, McDonald's, music and musicians, prosecution, racial quotas, small business

July 11 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Salt reactions

Walter Olson — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:42:28 +0000

The report in the Washington Post that the Food and Drug Administration intends to work toward mandatory limits on salt in processed food provoked some negative public reaction, and now the agency has issued a public statement not exactly denying the story, but complaining that it “leaves a mistaken impression that the FDA has begun the process of regulating the amount of sodium in foods. The FDA is not currently working on regulations nor has it made a decision to regulate sodium content in foods at this time.” Emphasis added to point out the cagey phrasings: there is no denial that the agency’s leadership intends to do all these things in the future, exactly as the Post reported.
In what is known as coordinated publicity, the trial balloon, if a trial balloon it was, was sent up to coincide with the release of a large National Institute of Medicine report pushing for salt reductions. More: WSJ Health Blog;
In more coordinated publicity, Rep. Rosa DiLauro (D-Ct.) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Ia.) held a conference call with reporters demanding that the agency move faster to regulate salt. “I don’t want this to take 10 years. … This is a public health crisis,” said DiLauro (via Carter Wood at ShopFloor, who comments and in a separate post points out some CSPI lawyer angles);
Welcome listeners from Ray Dunaway’s morning show on WTIC Hartford, where I discussed these issues this morning.
And here’s an apparently new group calling itself “My Food, My Choice” that has come up with a good epithet for NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s squad of food regulators: “bland-lords“.
More: Stanley Goldfarb, Weekly Standard.

Tags: Connecticut, CSPI, on TV and radio, salt

Salt reactions is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Update: “Sodium lawsuit against Denny’s dismissed”

Walter Olson — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:48:49 +0000

Nation’s Restaurant News (via Russell Jackson): “A New Jersey Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday accusing Denny’s Corp. of perpetrating fraud by not disclosing the amount of sodium in its food. The lawsuit, the first sodium-related case against a restaurant company, was filed this summer by a New Jersey man with help from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based consumer advocacy group.” Earlier here and here. Update/clarification: judge gave leave to amend, so action is expected to continue.

Tags: CSPI, restaurants, salt

Update: “Sodium lawsuit against Denny’s dismissed” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

The odium of sodium

Walter Olson — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:31:25 +0000

Hans Bader isn’t impressed by the numbers slung around by the Center for Science in the Public Interest in its lawsuit charging that the food at Denny’s restaurants is too salty. [Washington Examiner, earlier]

Tags: CSPI, restaurants, salt

The odium of sodium is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Denny’s Sued Over Salt Content in Food”

Walter Olson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:46:28 +0000

Denny’s as “Public Health Enemy No. 1″, over-salty food as “silent killer” — yes, they really do talk that way at the uber-nannyish (and litigious) Center for Science in the Public Interest [AOL Slashfood, Consumer Law and Policy, Greg Conko/CEI "Open Market"]

Tags: CSPI, failure to warn, food safety, nanny state, restaurants, salt

“Denny’s Sued Over Salt Content in Food” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“David Kessler Goes Dumpster Diving (and Emerges With Garbage)”

Walter Olson — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:14:10 +0000

The former FDA chief and inveterate nanny-state advocate, David Kessler, has a new book arguing that chain restaurant food is excessively palatable, to the point where it effectively addicts the chains’ customers. Jacob Sullum at Reason accords Kessler’s theories all the respect they deserve.

Tags: CSPI, nanny state, obesity, restaurants

“David Kessler Goes Dumpster Diving (and Emerges With Garbage)” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

CSPI: “Vitamin Water” not good for you

Walter Olson — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 05:13:33 +0000

Mike Cernovich thinks the plaintiff suing over the sugar-laden beverage might have spared himself a lot of trouble by, you know, reading the label.

Tags: CSPI, labels, soft drinks

CSPI: “Vitamin Water” not good for you is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system