Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘food safety’

Kinder Surprise chocolate-covered toys

We’ve reported before (related) on the federal government’s ban on Kinder Surprise chocolate-wrapped toys, considered innocuous in many other countries but deemed an illicit choking hazard here. They’re back in the news [Lenore Skenazy, Katherine Mangu-Ward] with the key paragraph in the CBC’s report indicating how very frequently the candies are seized from bewildered travelers:

The U.S. takes catching illegal Kinder candy seriously, judging by the number of them they’ve confiscated in the last year. Officials said they’ve seized more than 25,000 of the treats in 2,000 separate seizures.

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On the food safety bill


Despite the “government will finally protect you now” atmospherics, there’s little reason to think the recently signed food safety bill will make any dramatic change in what were already falling rates of food poisoning. Bacteria will still be around, and you’ll still want to remember grandma’s advice about washing fresh produce and taking care with raw eggs. I explain in a brief interview with Hearst-Argyle Television.

Separately: Food-safety bill provided a feast for lobbyists [Washington Post]

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Big business and the extension of regulation

There’s a curiously contemporary ring in these reports from the early days of federal food safety regulation (Roy Childs via Arnold Kling):

…Regulation in general, far from coming against the wishes of the regulated interests, was openly welcomed by them in nearly every case. As Upton Sinclair said of the meat industry, which he is given credit for having tamed, “the federal inspection of meat was historically established at the packers’ request. … It is maintained and paid for by the people of the United States for the benefit of the packers.”

…In any case, congressional hearings during the administration of Theodore Roosevelt revealed that “the big Chicago packers wanted more meat inspection both to bring the small packers under control and to aid them in their position in the export trade.” Formally representing the large Chicago packers, Thomas E. Wilson publicly announced: “We are now and have always been in favor of the extension of the inspection.”

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Obama signs school nutrition bill

I joined host Garland Robinette today on New Orleans’ WWL to discuss the background to yesterday’s signing and the considerable shift from local to federal control that will result. As I pointed out, schools’ safety-driven fear of fresh ingredients (meat, poultry, eggs, greens, and so forth all pose some bacterial risk) has long been among the factors driving them toward bland and repetitive menus based on precooked, frozen or canned ingredients.

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From comments: Before feeding the hungry…

…better check whether your church is licensed as a commercial LatticePiefood-preparation facility [Density Duck in comments:]

…Our local church had to shut down its Feed-The-Hungry operation (where a bunch of retired housewives cooked simple meals and froze them to give to the local soup kitchen.) The reason is that the church kitchen wasn’t certified as a commercial food-preparation facility, as one of the lawyers in the congregation helpfully pointed out to the lady in charge of the program.

We’ve covered the issue periodically before.

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October 23 roundup

  • Suffolk County, New York’s new animal abuse registry [Scott Greenfield and more vs. Elie Mystal]
  • Examining Dems’ “flood of outside campaign money” claims [Baseball Crank, Sullum]
  • “Reverse bill stuffer” turns tables on firms’ efforts to amend fine print [David Horton, Prawfs]
  • Occupational licensure and economic sclerosis in Greece [NYT]
  • Phoenix cops’ unsettling evidence-plant “joke” [Coyote]
  • Legal Left trying to set up argument for Thomas recusal on Obamacare challenge? [Steele, LEF]
  • “How Fannie and Freddie Became a $363 Billion Liability” [John Hudson, Atlantic Wire]
  • “Lawsuit of the Day: Kid Injured by ‘Deleterious’ Hot Sauce” [Legal Blog Watch]

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