Overlawyered » food safety

Ethnic foodways vs. state regulation

Walter Olson — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 17:14:01 +0000

The sale of live seafood, common in Chinese food markets, can collide with blanket state regulation of wildlife sales. Virginia, for example, classifies as wildlife any animals not appearing on a list of domestic animals, even if they are raised on farms and have never lived in the wild. While the Virginia suburbs of D.C. have won fame as a hot spot for admirers of Asian food, the selection got somewhat narrower last year with the confiscation of eels, crayfish, bullfrogs and other critters from the Great Wall supermarket. Two store managers were hit with felony charges. [NY Times, Washington Post ]

Tags: animals, eat drink and be merry, food safety, Virginia

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The other variety meat

Walter Olson — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:17:03 +0000

While on the subject of hamburgers, Adam Ozimek takes on the sentimental sloganeering about “pink slime” and makes the case for getting more food out of each cow, quite aside from the safety advantages of the stuff.

Commenter Jesse Spurway: “I guess head cheese and scrapple are next on the hit list.” More: Andrew Revkin, NYT; Greg Conko, CEI.

Tags: eat drink and be merry, food safety

The other variety meat is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

NYC restaurant inspections vs. good food

Walter Olson — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:36:43 +0000

Josh Barro explains why he prefers establishments that get a “B” rather than an “A” grade from NYC hygiene inspectors. [Forbes]

Tags: food safety, NYC, restaurants

NYC restaurant inspections vs. good food is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Newest health scare: organic brown rice syrup

Walter Olson — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:46:21 +0000

Traces of arsenic occur naturally in many foodstuffs, and apparently syrup derived from brown rice can have one of the higher concentrations [Chicago Tribune] Next shoe to drop: steak, creme brulee turn out to be good for you.

Tags: food safety

Newest health scare: organic brown rice syrup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

NYC diner owner decides to record food inspection on cellphone

Walter Olson — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:54:22 +0000

And soon finds cause for regret [NY Post via Radley Balko, to whom congratulations are in order; related]

Tags: food safety, NYC, photography, police, restaurants

NYC diner owner decides to record food inspection on cellphone is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Relax, folks, it really is honey after all”

Walter Olson — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:33:46 +0000

Dan Charles at NPR reports on how parts of the media joined in last month to hype a report by journalist Andrew Schneider in Food Safety News raising alarms about the safety and authenticity of honey. (Similarly: Maggie Koerth-Baker, BoingBoing). “It sounded so right, plenty of people decided that it just had to be true. … But then we decided to look into it a little more closely. We talked to honey companies, academic experts, and one of the world’s top honey laboratories in Germany. The closer we looked, the more misleading the story in Food Safety News seemed.”

My Cato colleague Sallie James was among the few to take a skeptical tone about the Schneider allegations when they first hit the press. And as NPR points out, Food Safety News is part of the sprawling new media empire of Bill Marler, the very media-savvy food poisoning lawyer whose Marler Clark law firm has done much to sway press discussion of many food safety issues. On a different topic, did Marler really say the other day that raw milk farmers should count themselves lucky they’re not put to death?

Tags: agriculture and farming, eat drink and be merry, food safety, media bias

“Relax, folks, it really is honey after all” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Soup kitchen as “retail food establishment”

Walter Olson — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 13:21:24 +0000

In Morristown, N.J., the city’s decision to reclassify a church-sponsored soup kitchen as a “retail food establishment” is expected to drive up the kitchen’s operating costs by at least $150,000 a year, in part by prohibiting volunteers from bringing in home-prepared food or even aprons. [William McGurn, Wall Street Journal] We’ve covered the issue periodically over the years.

Tags: churches, food safety

Soup kitchen as “retail food establishment” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Food law roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 05:09:59 +0000

“Wisconsin Judge Rules No Right to Own a Cow or Drink Its Milk” [Food Freedom; related on demonstration at FDA]
We’re from the authorities, and we’re shutting down your “farm-to-fork” dinner [Amy Alkon]
“FTC Makes Strategic Concessions on Food/Beverage Marketing Guidelines” [Lammi, WLF]
Given a little humility, NYT’s Mark Bittman might have noticed that his new junk food insight contradicts his old [Jacob Sullum, Reason]
Urban myths about Halloween candy tampering [Free-Range Kids]
New Jersey lawsuit over serving of meat to devout Hindu vegetarians [Abnormal Use; compare 1999 case]
“First lady will achieve goal of eradicating all food deserts by 2017″ — calm down, that’s “deserts” with just the one “s” [Obama Foodorama, more, more] Premise that lack of access to fresh fruits/vegetables accounts for poor urban diet, however, is sheerest fantasy [Katherine Mangu-Ward/WaPo, earlier here and here]

Tags: advertising, eat drink and be merry, food safety, obesity

Food law roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

October 13 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:36:49 +0000

Behind the antitrust assault on Google [Jerry Brito, Josh Wright, more]
Rapid rise of lawsuit lenders [WSJ] And a Searle Civil Justice Institute conference on third party financing of litigation;
More law firms muscle into class action against e-book publishers [PaidContent] Fifth Circuit questions cy pres [Trask] And a new edition of the Federalist Society’s Class Action Watch is out;
When the house painters announce they’re not leaving: “Britain plans to tighten anti-squatter laws” [NYT]
“Courts Call Out Copyright Trolls’ Coercive Business Model, Threaten Sanctions” [EFF] “Righthaven’s Copyright Trolling is a Bankrupt Idea” [Cit Media Law] More: Vegas Inc.
“Twombly is the Logical Extension of the Mathews v. Eldridge Test to Discovery” [Andrew Blair-Stanek via Volokh, Frank] “Four more reasons to love TwIqbal” [Beck] “O’Scannlain says 9th Circ has adopted ‘Iqbal lite’ pleading standard, ‘Same insufficient complaints, fewer dismissals!’” [@ScottKGraham on dissent in Starr v. County of Los Angeles, PDF]
Florida farms sell raw milk as (wink) “pet food” [Sun-Sentinel]

Tags: antitrust, class actions, cy pres, food safety, Google, litigation finance, pleading, RightHaven

October 13 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Food law roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:56:43 +0000

Feds fund Boston campaign bashing sweetened drinks [Globe; see also on NYC] More on ObamaCare “Public Health Fund” subsidies to local paternalist initiatives on diet [WLF]
Thanks to federal funding priorities, New York education department had 40 experts on school lunches, only one on science education [Frederick Hess via Stoll]
Grocers hope to escape federal menu labeling mandate [FDA Law Blog] How regulations exasperate midsize restaurant operators [Philip Klein, Wash. Examiner]
“The Eight Dumbest Restaurant Laws” [Zagat]
Proposed federal standards on kid food ads extreme enough that many USDA “healthy” recipes would flunk [Diane Katz, Heritage] Do FTC’s guidelines violate the First Amendment? [WSJ]
Compared with what? “Egg farm regulations still skimpy” [Stoll] Deer blamed for E. coli in pick-your-own strawberries [USA Today]
U.K.: Your kids are too fat so we’re taking them away [Daily Mail; earlier here, here, etc.]

Tags: advertising, Boston, eat drink and be merry, Federal Trade Commission, food safety, nanny state, New York, obesity, restaurants, schools

Food law roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system