Suit demanding warnings on hot dogs

The Newark Star-Ledger covers a publicity stunt by the animal-rights group that calls itself Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Patrick at Popehat engages in a bit of naming and shaming. Others to have written on the group in question include Newsweek in 2004 (“Less than 5 percent of PCRM’s members are physicians”), the American Council on Science and Health, and the food-industry-defense Center for Consumer Freedom.

P.S. L.A. Times gets the best line, from Susan Thatcher of Irvine: “Vegans complaining about hot dogs is like the Amish complaining about gas prices.”

Filed under: animal rights, food safety, labels

Milk. “Contains milk”.

Flickr user IWouldStay (Creative Commons, some rights reserved) snapped this one on a milk jug in the U.K.: milkcontainsmilk

Related, earlier (chocolate milk).

Filed under: labels, United Kingdom, wacky warnings

CSPI: “Vitamin Water” not good for you

Mike Cernovich thinks the plaintiff suing over the sugar-laden beverage might have spared himself a lot of trouble by, you know, reading the label.

Filed under: CSPI, labels, soft drinks

By reader acclaim: guacamole labeling suit

As its label discloses, Kraft Guacamole Dip hardly deserves the name, containing less than 2 percent avocado. The strategy of “read the label” was one that Brenda Lifsey of Los Angeles elected not to follow, nor did she content herself with the backstop strategy of “ask for your purchase price back and don’t buy the product again”. Instead, she’s filed a lawsuit seeking class-action status against the giant food company. And speaking of artificial ways of making green: “Lifsey has been a plaintiff in other lawsuits against large corporations,” including Sears and Carfax, over alleged misrepresentations of their products. (Jerry Hirsch, “Lawsuit stirs up guacamole labeling controversy”, L.A. Times/Chicago Tribune, Nov. 30).

Filed under: class actions, labels

Great moments in food labeling law

From Wales:

A spicy sausage known as the Welsh Dragon will have to be renamed after trading standards’ officers warned the manufacturers that they could face prosecution because it does not contain dragon.

The sausages will now have to be labelled Welsh Dragon Pork Sausages to avoid any confusion among customers.

Jon Carthew, 45, who makes the sausages, said yesterday that he had not received any complaints about the absence of real dragon meat.

(Simon de Bruxelles, “Sausages affected by draconian trade laws”, Times Online, Nov. 18).

Filed under: labels, United Kingdom

Seriously Bad Elf beer

The Ridgeway Brewery in England brews a bitter winter ale which it calls Seriously Bad Elf, complete with a drawing of a gnomic figure on the label. Now officials in Connecticut, including Attorney General and bete-noire-of-this-site Richard Blumenthal, have banned imports of the ale on the grounds that an elf drawing might entice minors to drink the beer. (“‘Seriously Bad Elf’ Beer Banned In CT”, CBS4Boston, Oct. 28; “Connecticut looks to ban British beer with elf label”, AP/USA Today, Oct. 29).

Filed under: attorneys general, beer and brewers, Connecticut, labels, Richard Blumenthal