The UK Government has proposed rules that would prohibit the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to children under the age of 16, intended to “prevent obesity in up to 40,000 children and deliver health benefits worth tens of millions of pounds.”
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has received official approval for four changes to the Food Standards Code. It has also provided new targeted guidance on microbiological safety and hygiene for seafood and cell-cultured products.
FDA has issued a proposed rule to amend the Standard of Identity (SOI) for orange juice, reducing the minimum Brix requirement from 10.5 to 10. This addresses modern agricultural challenges making it difficult for manufacturers to meet Brix content requirements.
The current campaign to require a cancer warning on alcohol containers will likely be hampered by the complex and thorny congressional action required to update the health warning statement. Nonetheless, alcohol industry members will need to carefully implement public relations, legislative, and litigation strategies to respond to this emphasis on the potential harms related to alcohol consumption.
FDA carried out a sampling and testing assignment of bottled waters for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in 2023–2024. Although PFAS were detected in ten samples, no bottled waters were found to have levels of “forever chemicals” exceeding EPA maximum limits for PFAS in drinking water.
With the passage of House Bill 81, Utah will ban the addition of fluoride to public drinking water systems beginning May 7, 2025. Community water fluoridation has come under scrutiny in recent years due to concerns about its affect on children’s IQ.
In a first-of-its-kind study analyzing large population-level datasets, researchers from the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine estimated that communities exposed to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) -contaminated drinking water experience up to 33 percent higher incidence of certain cancers.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has proposed a rule that would require mandatory labeling on alcoholic beverages for the “Big 9” food allergens. The proposed rule is open for comment until April 17, 2025.
A recent study has revealed that nearly 100 million people in the U.S. are exposed to unregulated chemicals in their drinking water—including solvents, refrigerants, and PFAS—with Hispanic populations most disproportionately affected.
A recent study has demonstrated that millions of nano- and microplastics are released by polymer-based commercial tea bags when infused with hot water, and that these plastic particles are readily taken up by human intestinal cells.
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