With the holidays upon us, diets and healthy eating habits often are unfortunately tossed out the window. Obese Americans and an alarming increase in diabetes and cardiovascular diseases have made the pandemic much worse, yet there is no wake-up call coming from Washington that has crossed our radar screen. So, why hasn’t Washington hit the pause button to address these epidemic issues?
Politico has even brought this matter to the forefront of their readers by citing the Centers for Disease Control’s recent research that says more than 42 percent of American adults or about 100 million people were reported to be obese before the pandemic began and today these numbers have increased for our adult population. And currently more than one in five children are obese. Researchers say that nearly two-thirds of COVID -19 hospitalizations in the U.S. were related to obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and heart failure.
Connecting the dots on diet-related diseases and the pandemic were never part of White House messaging on the virus but a Senate Agriculture subcommittee on nutrition did hold a recent hearing on “the state of nutrition in America,” So, we at Policy Solutions forecast more information and policy directives forthcoming soon from the Hill in early 2022 because of these alarming statistics.
Next Steps
The Biden administration has not been sitting on their laurels as they point to their recent successes in voluntary sodium goals and increasing Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to improve the health and eating habits of the poor. And the Biden team has also brought about major improvements to the nation’s free school meals programs. More needs to be done and that brings the issues of reducing obesity and related diseases to the doorstep of the Department of Agriculture. Thus, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has taken the matter under his wings and is making change a priority.
Perhaps a new White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Hunger will be in our future. Plus, it is worth mentioning that over 300 retired military leaders recently sent a letter to Congress calling for a modernization of child nutrition programs as they warned that high rates of child and young adult obesity represent a future national security risk by disqualifying one in three young Americans from military service. As you can now see, obesity delves even further than you may have thought. In the meantime, the food industry is being asked to do all that is possible to inform and educate their customers about healthy eating habits. This is serious stuff folks so wake up your marketing team as we contemplate how our food industry can make meaningful inroads to curb obesity in 2022 and improve the health of Americans!
Now, let’s see what is happening elsewhere in the federal bureaucracy.
Bioengineered Food Updates
Several of my readers offered up some questions after reading my last month’s commentary regarding the new bio-engineered labels (BE) that are to appear on products starting next month. So, to provide additional clarification on the issue, allow me to offer the following: The responsibility for disclosing BE ingredients in packaged food that is received by a retailer is the responsibility of the manufacturer or importer. However, manufacturers with annual receipts of less than $2.5 million are exempt and according to USDA, that is 75 percent of U.S. food manufacturers.
Complications arise for retailers, according to an article that crossed my desk from Specialty Food News, who package food or sell food in a bulk container. Thus, package food must have a BE disclosure label. But exempt are salad bars, delicatessens, and other food enterprises located within retail establishments that provide ready-to-eat foods that are consumed either on or the assumption that those foods will be eaten on-premises or off-premises right after purchase. But it gets even more confusing as, for example, a noodle salad that contains BE soy would not need to be labeled when it is sold for immediate consumption from the deli but should be labeled when packaged and sold in another location within a store. And from my viewpoint, lots of retailers do just that. If you are still confused, my advice is to speak to your legal counsel.
Biotechnology And Gene Editing
Recently, the House Committee on Agriculture’s livestock and biotechnology subcommittees held a joint hearing to discuss how agricultural biotechnology and gene editing will fit in to the future of U.S. agriculture. Lawmakers and witnesses also discussed the impact of agricultural innovation on the current regulatory process, the need for public-private partnerships and additional funding for land grant universities to help foster technological advances.
In a letter sent to Agriculture Committee Chairman David Scott (D-GA) and ranking member Glenn Thompson (R-PA), the National Pork Producers Council and 22 other agricultural organizations urged the lawmakers to support continued work in this area in a way that will allow these important innovations to come to fruition. “Science and innovation are moving swiftly. To realize these important applications and their benefits, we must have federal policies that are risk and science-based and will permit the meaningful adoption of these products by producers, supply chains, and consumers,” the letter said. Yes, the technology is changing extremely rapidly and needs to be addressed in Congress sooner than later. This is the future folks!
Cattle Market Price Issues
In a prior column, I mentioned that Uncle Sam was looking into the lack of transparency in pricing in the cattle markets from ranch to retail. The update is that after Senate and House hearings on the issue, four Senators recently announced that they are planning to take the lead and introduce a bill to address the issue. Their bill brings together prior proposals into a new bill.
The four Senators, all from cattle-producing states, are Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) – a powerful divide between both parties. But trade associations within the cattle industry are divided on their support. “The Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act will deliver on its promise to restore robust price discovery and provide market participants with the information they need to make savvy marketing decisions. It also mandates that every packer required to report to USDA is also required to participate in the cash market each week….” said U.S. Cattlemen’s Association. On the other hand, the North American Meat Institute expressed concerns over parts of the draft bill saying “…. this bill would replace the free market with government mandates and harm those it is intended to protect…” Stay tuned.
Next Government Steps For The Growing Foods Online Trends
When the pandemic began, consumers took a new look at online food delivery programs in record numbers as shoppers took steps to remain safe and healthy and restaurants closed in record numbers. A perfect storm some may say. What began as a trend has now become a mainstay within the retail food industry and continues to grow in popularity. All that caused FDA to take a new look at home delivery to ensure that consumers are not unwittingly trading food safety for convenience.
As I mentioned in a prior column, FDA held a three-day summit entitled “FDA New Era of Smarter Food Safety Summit on E-Commerce: Ensuring the Safety of Foods Ordered Online and Delivered Directly to Consumers.” Now that the summit is over, what are the next steps? FDA said, “We’ve learned that it is not just millennials and the tech-savvy ordering foods online but a population that crosses age and economic divides. We’ve also heard that this issue is not unique to the U.S. In fact, China’s food delivery apps have the largest market penetration, with the U.S. being the second largest market.”
The summit discussion will now tackle time and temperature controls to help ensure food safety and safeguards against cross contamination between ready-to-eat foods and raw foods. Also, food tampering, labeling, and general education for consumers and guidelines for retailers will be among next steps to be taken.
FDA Releases Food Safety And Nutrition Survey Results
FDA has officially released FSANS Explorer, a web-based tool that allows users to interact with the Food Safety and Nutrition Survey data at any time to find answers to their specific questions. This new tool should be of interest to your marketing and consumer affairs people as it is designed to assess consumers’ awareness, knowledge, understanding, and behaviors related to a variety of food safety and nutrition related topics. The findings are designed to help make better informed regulatory, policy, education, and other risk-management decisions to promote and protect public health.
For more information on the FSANS Explorer Tool, go to https://fsans-explorer.fda.gov.
Holiday Meal Safety
The holiday season often means having family and friends over for home-cooked meals. However, remember unsafe handling and undercooking can lead to serious foodborne illness. If you have any food prep questions, you can chat with a government food safety expert at 888.674.6854. The food safety experts at USDA are always delighted to answer your questions. This is good information to convey to your customers too!
Finally, let me wish all my readers a healthy and happy New Year. I enjoy hearing from you as it is always a pleasure to receive your comments so keep them coming. Best wishes.
Barry Scher is associated with the public policy firm of Policy-Solutions LLC and may be reached at [email protected].