USDA nominee earned $100,000 in ‘pink slime’ trial
Texas Tech professor Mindy Brashears, President Trump’s nominee for agriculture undersecretary for food safety, collected $100,000 as an expert witness for Beef Products Inc. in its defamation lawsuit against ABC-TV last year.
Settlement reached in ‘pink slime’ defamation case
Nearly three weeks into a jury trial, ABC News and Beef Products Inc. reached a settlement on the meat processor’s suit seeking $1.9 billion in damages for reporting that referred to its “lean finely textured beef,” made from beef trimmings, as “pink slime.”
Put cancer warning on processed meat, consumer group asks USDA
Pointing to a WHO agency finding that processed meat is "carcinogenic to humans," the Center for Science in the Public Interest petitioned USDA to require a cancer warning label on packages of bacon, ham, hot dogs and other processed red meat and poultry. Michael Jacobson, leader of the consumer group, said chances are slim the incoming Trump administration will agree with the petition, "but at CSPI we're used to taking the long view."
Americans are slow to change meat-eating habits
Americans have one of the highest per-capita rates of meat consumption in the world, says the NPR blog The Salt, pegging red meat consumption at 71 pounds a year.
Hog prices plunge after WHO cancer risk rating
U.S. hog prices are the lowest in six years, with the swift drop in market prices following the rating by the WHO's cancer research agency of processed meats such as bacon and ham as "carcinogenic to humans," says Purdue economist Chris Hurt.
Petition would eliminate processed meat from school lunch
A doctors' group petitioned the USDA for the second time in six years to remove processed meats such as hot dogs from the school lunch program to "create carcinogen-free cafeterias." The 12,000-member Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine filed the petition a day after a WHO agency declared processed meat a carcinogen and that red meat is probably carcinogenic to humans.
WHO agency finds cancer hazard in processed and red meat
The WHO's cancer agency, in a decision certain to intensify the debate over the American diet, classified processed meat as "carcinogenic to humans" and red meat as "probably carcinogenic to humans."
“Hands off my hotdog!” says meat industry petition
In a bid to influence the new edition of the Dietary Guidelines, the meat industry launched a "Hands off my hotdog" petition at Change.org.
“Bad” foods outpace good as diets change worldwide
Consumption of healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables improved worldwide over the two decades ending in 2010, but "intake of unhealthy foods including processed meat and sweetened drinks" rose more rapidly, according to a study published in the journal Lancet Global Health.
The Food Babe and her critics
"In an age when consumers have become increasingly suspicious of processed food, the Internet has become a powerful platform for activists who want to hold Big Food accountable," begins a story at the NPR blog The Salt about Vani Hari...
Children eat 40 percent more salt than recommended
More than 90 percent of U.S. children eat far more salt than recommended by the government, putting them at risk for developing high blood pressure and heart disease later in life, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a Vital Signs report, CDC researchers said that 43 percent of the sodium comes from the 10 foods most commonly eaten by children: pizza, bread and rolls, cold cuts/cured meats, savory snacks, sandwiches, cheese, chicken patties/nuggets/tenders, pasta mixed dishes, Mexican mixed dishes, and soups.