Drawing on extensive consumer research, The Campbell Soup Co.’s GMO disclosure labels on packs and online could serve as a model for USDA in crafting the mandatory national bioengineering label standard and other companies looking for solutions.
POM v Coke got there, but will another high-profile food litigation case – this time over GMOs and 100% natural labels on cooking oil (Briseno v ConAgra) - also end up in the Supreme Court?
Can organic supply match demand? Is Paleo a fad or a trend? Are you getting enough bang for your promotional bucks? How big will online food shopping become? To gauge our readers’ views on these –and many more questions - FoodNavigator-USA is running...
When the Arctic Apple hits select store shelves this month as one of the first products genetically modified for consumers’ benefit, it will serve as a line in the sand for the tug of war between the non-GMO movement and the future of food innovation.
FDA and USDA push forward a strategy to modernize how genetically modified organisms are regulated that was created in part with the Executive Office of the President under the Obama Administration even as President Trump took office with the promise...
Consumers are increasingly interested in functional foods, and enthusiasm for protein won’t trail off anytime this year, predicts the International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundation.
Openness and transparency is the only way for genetic engineering technology to thrive in the supply of dietary ingredients, said an official with a company engaged in the practice.
A hotly-anticipated opinion by the US court of appeals for the ninth circuit in a high-profile false advertising case, contains bad news for defendant ConAgra Foods (now ConAgra Brands), but may prove to be of less significance to other food manufacturers,...
Demographics don't provide easy answers to GMO debate, says Pew Research Center
Think anti-GMO sentiment is primarily the preserve of white college educated liberals? Think again, says Pew Research Center, which has just conducted a consumer survey suggesting that attitudes on GMOs, organics, and other food issues are “conspicuously...
There have been hundreds of class action lawsuits directed against food and beverage companies in recent years over everything from evaporated cane juice to Non-GMO claims. But has the false advertising litigation trend peaked, and if not, what are the...
Has the FDA’s probe into ‘natural’ claims on food labels put a stop to the tidal wave of false advertising lawsuits engulfing food manufacturers? Not if a new complaint against Dannon is anything to go by, which also delves into the thorny issue of GMOs,...
To protect organic crops and products form the “incursion” of rapidly developing genetic engineering, the National Organic Standards Board voted last week to recommend USDA expand and strengthen the definitions of excluded methods under organic regulations.
Taiyo’s Non-GMO certification for its Matcha Powder is a sign of the growing influence of this attribute, even for ingredient categories that have never been subject to genetic modification.
Soy may be best known in America as a source of high-quality protein, but as more trendy and allergen-friendly sources of plant-based protein enter the market, the bean may need to evolve its marketing to better highlight some of its other health attributes...
Cargill has joined a flurry of suppliers making non-GMO announcements at the Supply Side West trade show this year, gaining Non-GMO Project verification for erythritol, cane sugar, and high oleic sunflower oil.
ADM will go into full commercial production of ‘invisible’ soy protein isolate CLARISOY this year in Decatur IL, using technology developed by Canadian partner Burcon Nutrascience, which has developed techniques to extract proteins from plants that enable...
With clean label now “the most dominant trend in food and drink," many food and beverage manufacturers are moving away from fortifying foods with minerals, vitamins and other nutritious ingredients, says Euromonitor International.
Ironically, perhaps, just as open innovation is fostering a more open and collaborative culture in the notoriously secretive world of food R&D, consumers are becoming increasingly suspicious of scientists ‘meddling’ with their food, says Cargill’s...
While the SmartLabel initiative has been dismissed by some as an elaborate conspiracy by big food companies to avoid mandatory on-pack GMO labeling statements, it will ultimately have far broader significance – and potentially a huge impact on how consumers...
The word ‘disruptive’ is bandied around with wearying regularity in relation to food startups these days, but if anyone warrants this moniker, it's Perfect Day (formerly Muufri). Unlike the purveyors of nut- or legume-based ‘plant milks’, Ryan Pandya...
On the heels of President Barack Obama signing into law a federal bill requiring the disclosure of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on packaged food and beverage products, we at Beverage Daily and FoodNavigator-USA asked consumers at a downtown Chicago...
New NGS DNA testing methods will replace PCR, predicts Clear Labs
As the Non-GMO Project states on its website, ‘GMO-free’ claims are “not legally or scientifically defensible due to limitations of testing methodology" coupled with cross-contamination risks. In future, however, that could change as testing methods...
It’s a bold move given how highly-charged – and extremely polarized - the debate has become, but Los Angeles-based start-up Soylent has weighed into the conversation over genetically engineered food crops with a blog post entitled: 'Soylent: Proudly...
The recent introduction of GMO labeling will bring clarity to the marketplace and create choice for consumers, says the EVP of Global Specialties for Ingredion.
The US House of Representatives has voted to pass a federal GMO labeling bill (306:117 votes) that would pre-empt and nullify all state-led GMO labeling laws including the one that has just come into effect in Vermont.
Dow AgroSciences is a step closer to commercializing oil from canola plants bred to produce meaningful amounts of the coveted long-chain omega-3 fatty acids DHA (3.7%) and EPA (0.7%), which are currently only found in fish, fungi or microalgae, according...
Michael Conway: Senate GMO bill is 'riddled with ambiguity'
Industry groups are lobbying leaders in the House of Representatives to allow a vote on a GMO labeling bill next week before they break for the party conventions, after the proposed legislation was passed in the Senate in a 63-30 vote last night.
USDA addresses concerns about the narrow definition of 'bioengineered'
The US Senate has voted to proceed to final debate on a federal GMO labeling bill in a cloture vote of 65-32, with the Senate set to vote on final passage as early as Thursday (July 7).
An industry-backed survey of 1,665 online primary shoppers suggests that Vermont’s mandatory GMO labels “strongly mislead consumers,” claims the Corn Refiners Association (CRA).
With the effective date for Vermont’s GMO labeling law officially here and the debate surrounding whether and how to identify genetically engineered ingredients in food and beverage continuing to amplify, a recent CivicScience poll uncovered a startling...
Attempts to reach a federal GMO labeling solution have failed miserably to date. However, a bipartisan deal requiring mandatory GMO labeling (via smartlabels, symbols or as yet undetermined wording) thrashed out in the Senate on Thursday looks like it...
The controversy surrounding genetic engineering may feel deafening at times with each side prolifically and loudly debating its pros and cons, but the vast majority of consumers remain unfamiliar GMOs and unclear if they pose a risk, according to a recent...
The FDA has issued a GRAS (generally recognized as safe) no objections letter for EverSweet, Cargill’s hotly-anticipated ‘next-generation’ Reb D and Reb M sweetener – produced via fermentation rather than from the stevia leaf - qualifying it for use in...
US Agriculture Sec. Tom Vilsack called on Congress to pass mandatory, national GMO labeling to eliminate the risk that consumer confusion triggered by inconsistent labels could destabilize and stymie growth in an otherwise expanding industry.
Glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer to humans, says a report by a joint FAO and WHO committee on pesticides, but NGOs have questioned some of the scientists’ links to the chemical industry.
There is no evidence that foods from genetically engineered (GE) crops are less safe to eat than their 'conventional' counterparts, according to a new report from The National Academies of Sciences, which will "provide fodder for friends...
By Kristen E. Polovoy, Esquire, of counsel, Montgomery McCracken
‘Fat-free,’ ‘non-dairy,’ ‘all-natural’, ‘sugar-free’, ‘gluten-free’ . . . are all in recent history’s hit parade of terms perceived by many consumers as a sign that that a product is somehow ‘better’ or ‘healthier.’ The most recent term to join this...
USDA should strengthen organic seed sourcing practices as part of a multifaceted approach to prevent unintentional contamination of organic crops with genetically modified organisms, the Organic Trade Association argues in comments submitted to the National...
If your product contains even trace levels of pesticide residue, and you are calling it '100% natural', are you at risk of a false advertising lawsuit? Complaints filed vs Quaker Oats on Friday suggest the answer is yes, although legal experts...
The European Parliament’s Committee on Development has urged G8 member states “not to support GMO [genetically modified] crops in Africa” as part of its critical resolution on the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition - a decision agri giant Monsanto...
Dannon says it will begin to use non-GMO ingredients in some of its products within three 3 flagship brands - Dannon, Oikos and Danimals - beginning summer 2016 (when Vermont's new GMO labeling law comes into effect), but has also pledged to transition...
What would a reasonable consumer define as 'non-GMO'?
An order from a Florida judge in a lawsuit vs Chipotle should serve a warning to all food marketers that they could be sued if they make non-GMO claims about foods containing dairy or meat from animals fed GE feed, legal experts have warned.
VeganSmart, a plant-based line of meal replacements, is penetrating areas plagued with malnutrition via a unique marketing vehicle—the power of hip hop.
11th hour reprieve from the courts or from Congress increasingly unlikely
Private litigants, or so-called ‘bounty hunters’, may start targeting food manufacturers over alleged violations of Vermont’s new GMO labeling law from day one (July 1), lawyers at Hogan Lovells have warned.
'We want to be clear what we stand for and ‘all-natural’ is not clear'
Good Food Made Simple – one of a new wave of companies on a mission to revitalize the frozen food aisle - is transitioning its burritos and wraps to a 'made with organic ingredients' platform and ditching the much maligned term ‘all-natural’...
'Our enforcement priorities will focus on willful violations of the labeling law'
In a memorandum on the new GMO labeling law coming into force in Vermont in July, attorney general William H. Sorrell says enforcement action will “focus on willful violations of the labeling law” and that there will be a six-month safe harbor period...
First was Campbell Soup, then General Mills, Mars and Kellogg... and now ConAgra Foods has become the latest major food company to roll out GMO labeling nationwide in order to comply with a law coming into force in Vermont on July 1.
