One year later, White House still sitting on organic aquaculture standards

A working group put together by the National Organic Program has been pitching for organic aquaculture standards since 2005. But a USDA proposal of standards passed on to the White House's Office of Management and Budget last year has apparently gotten nowhere since. Read more at Food Safety News...

Their hair fell out. Should the FDA have the power to act?

Congress is weighing new legislation that would require companies to report serious adverse reactions to their cosmetics products to the FDA, and give the agency the authority to issue mandatory recalls for unsafe products. It would also collect some $20 million in fees from the cosmetics industry each year to cover the cost of testing five ingredients with controversial safety profiles. Read more at The New York Times...

Chile battles obesity with stop signs on packaged foods

A country where more than two-thirds of people over the age of 15 are overweight or obese has new food labels designed to help consumers make quick choices about products they buy at the supermarket. They feature a black octagon with the words "high in" followed by foods that exceed certain thresholds for sugar, fat, sodium or calories. Read more at NPR...

How a protein could become the next big sweetener

Brazzein is a fruit protein that's been attracting attention as a potential sugar substitute for years, but purifying and producing it at a commercial level would be challenging. But scientists are working on a new method to make it more scalable. Read more at Science Daily...

This year has been a nightmare for retail

Total retail sales grew 2.3 percent in July but were propelled by "non-store retailers." Read more at Business Insider...