K A S H R U T . C O M_©

Gluten, lactose in drugs? Study raises questions about risk

March 13, 2019 - from APNews:

"A new report says pills often contain so-called “inactive” ingredients capable of causing allergic or gastrointestinal reactions in small numbers of people sensitive to specific compounds."
"And it’s hard for those patients, or even their doctors, to tell if a pill contains an extra ingredient they should avoid, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital said Wednesday. When the doctor sends a prescription, the pharmacist issues whatever the person’s insurance covers — without discussion of inactive ingredients that are buried in the drug’s labeling."
"Drugs contain an 'active ingredient,' what you hope will help your health. Patients may not realize that inactive ingredients make up the rest of the pill, substances that aren’t supposed to directly affect your health. They’re used to make it easier to absorb the drug, or to improve the taste or extend the shelf life."
"The study analyzed data on inactive ingredients from a database of more than 42,000 prescription and over-the-counter medicines. An average pill contains eight inactive ingredients, but some contain 20 or more."
"The report found:

• About 45 percent of the analyzed medications contained lactose. The amounts may be too small for some lactose-intolerant people to notice, but someone taking common drugs for high blood pressure and cholesterol could get about a gram a day.
• A third of medications contained a food dye associated with allergic reactions.
• More than half contained at least one type of sugar that people with irritable bowel syndrome are supposed to avoid. —In a recent survey, 18 percent of manufacturers said their medications contain gluten, which can cause severe reactions if patients with celiac disease consume as little as 1.5 milligrams a day. But labels may list only innocuous 'starch.'"

"Because refills can bring a different company’s formulation, patients should check the label each time."
"The issue is getting some attention. A pending Food and Drug Administration proposal recommends adding gluten information to drug labels."

Ritual animal slaughter law leaves Belgium's Muslims and Jews facing shortages, price hikes

March 10, 2019 - from NBC News and Yeshiva World:

"Jewish and Muslim communities have united in opposition to a new law in the Flanders region of Belgium, which bans the practices required for both Halal and Kosher meat. That has meant such products have become harder to find and more expensive in recent months."
"With the help of an American legal fund, a group of Muslim and Jewish organizations have taken legal action and hope to overturn the new law. The Belgian Constitutional Court heard their arguments in January and is expected to rule on the case within weeks."
"The groups say that the new regulation infringes on their civil rights, preventing them from freely practicing their religion."
"Belgian law had long required animals to be stunned before slaughter to prevent unnecessary pain. It did, however, grant an exception for ritual slaughter, a practice in Islamic and Jewish religious laws in which the animals are not stunned first. Both halal and kosher slaughter require the use of a very sharp knife to slit the animal’s throat in one stroke and sever the major structures and vessels."
"The new law in Flanders came into effect in January removing the religious exception. In the Wallonia region, a similar law will come into effect at the end of August."
"Many Muslims feel the laws are a result of Islamophobia rather than a concern for animal rights. For Jews, they are also an uncomfortable reminder of a darker period in European history. In 1933, one of the first laws the Nazis enacted was a ban on kosher animal slaughter."
"Belgium is home to larger populations of both Muslims and Jews, who fear that the restrictions on ritual slaughter could spread further throughout Europe. There are around 500,000 Muslims in Belgium and 30,000 Jews."
"Antwerp is home to one of the largest Jewish ultra-Orthodox populations in Europe."
"The Jewish community has long imported beef and lamb from slaughterhouses in France, Hungary and Poland, but the new law forced the closure of a poultry producer just outside of Antwerp."

Mislabeling an issue for species not covered under SIMP, US study by Oceana finds

March 7, 2019 - from Oceana and SeafoodSource:

"Oceana launched a new investigation to study whether seafood fraud persists in the U.S. seafood market. Between March and August 2018, Oceana collected more than 400 samples of seafood not covered in the Seafood Import Monitoring Program from 24 different states and the District of Columbia. One in every 5 of the fish tested were mislabeled. Seafood fraud continues to cheat consumers, weaken ocean conservation efforts, and undermine honest fishermen and seafood businesses."

• "One in every 5 of the 449 fish tested were mislabeled.
• One-third of the establishments visited sold mislabeled seafood.
• Seafood was more frequently mislabeled at restaurants and smaller markets than at larger chain grocery stores.
• Sea bass and snapper had the highest rates of mislabeling (55 and 42 percent, respectively).
• Imported seafood was sold as regional favorites, fooling consumers into thinking their seafood is locally sourced.
• Vulnerable species, such as Atlantic halibut, were sold as more sustainable catch.

Sugar Reduction in the News

March 6, 2019 - Beverages containing sugar have been seen as one of the causes of the obesity epidemic. Governments have been taxing beverages as a way to reduce this. Depending on how the regulations are written, companies have been adding grape juice as a sweetener to reduce the tax impact on their products. This has happened in England which has resulted in quite a few products losing kosher certification. Som municipalities in the US are or thinking about taxing sugar sweetened beverages.

• February 26, 2019 - City Council weighs bills to label sugary menu items
  A New York City Council bill "would require restaurants with seating areas to post a sign on the risks of sugar and carbohydrates for people with diabetes and prediabetes; make nutritional beverages, such as water and nonfat milk, the default drink options for kids' meals at chain restaurants; and add an icon on chains' menus to flag items with more than 12 grams of added sugar." "Restaurants violating the menu and signage rules would be subject to fines."
  "Displaying the sugar icons could present problems because the federal government requires disclosure of total sugar, not added sugar, on menu items."
• Feb. 25, 2019 - How effective are soda taxes in reducing consumption of sugary drinks?:
  • "A new study on the efficacy of soda taxes and their role in the reduction of sugary beverage consumption was published last week in the American Journal of Public Health."
  • "The study used five years of data collected from Berkeley, California, the first U.S. city to tax those drinks, and found a 52% decrease in soda consumption in the first three years since the tax was implemented." However the cities around Berkeley also had soda taxes.
  • "Other researchers are conducting similar studies in cities like Philadelphia, which also levied soda taxes. Their findings show that while taxes are effective in reducing consumption, they also drive consumers far and wide in the search for non-taxed sugary beverages."

Bumble Bee, US Foods and Bumble Bee, Sysco settle tuna price-fixing lawsuit

February 15, 2019 from undercurrent news February 26, 2019 and Undercurrent News
Bumble Bee Foods has separately settled tuna price fixing lawsuits by Sysco Corp and US Foods.
"This comes after StarKist Co. -- which, like Bumble Bee, has agreed to plead guilty to price-fixing in the Department of Justice (DOJ) criminal probe of the sector -- entered into a settlement agreement with Walmart to resolve price-fixing claims at the end of January. "
"ivil lawsuits from dozens of wholesalers, retailers and individuals across the US allege that the plaintiffs were overcharged by a long-running price-fixing conspiracy involving Thai Union Group's Tri-Union-Seafoods, owner of the Chicken of the Sea brand, Bumble Bee and StarKist. "
"The civil lawsuits began in 2015 amid an investigation into alleged price-fixing in the US tuna sector that spun out of the department's antitrust review of Thai Union's attempt to acquire Bumble Bee."