FDA Shuts Down Bakery That Put Sugar In Its ‘Sugar-Free’ Products

Sweet lovers, bakers, and assorted pastry-makers, take note: the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t take kindly to companies falsifying nutritional information about their products.

In the latest chapter of the FDA’s ongoing saga with New Jersey-based Butterfly Bakery, a federal judge has “approved a consent decree of permanent injunction against” the company “for unlawfully distributing misbranded food products, such as muffins and snack cakes,” according to an FDA press release.

Butterfly Bakery has a history of openly flaunting FDA regulations with regards to their nutritional labeling, misrepresenting the sugar and fat content of their products to astonishing degrees — in fact, the FDA plainly warned the company and CEO Brenda Issac that it would face consequences if it didn’t cease its fraudulent practices. As per the FDA press release:

The consent decree restrains Butterfly Bakery and Brenda Isaac from processing and distributing food until the company complies with the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) and applicable regulations. Under the consent decree, FDA may assess damages against the company for any future violations of the law or the consent decree.

“This injunction demonstrates that the FDA will seek enforcement action against companies that mislead consumers on the products they purchase,” said Melinda K. Plaisier, the FDA’s acting associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. “Until Butterfly Bakery meets FDA regulations, it will no longer be able to process or distribute their products.”

Samples tested by both FDA and state officials over several years show that Butterfly Bakery’s product labeling was false and misleading. For example, laboratory analysis showed that foods labeled as “sugar free” contained sugar, and that certain products contained as much as three times the amount of labeled/declared sugar, two times the amount of labeled/declared fat, and two times the amount of labeled/declared saturated fat.

Faced with the reality of America’s obesity-related medical problems, public health advocates have been pushing for more robust FDA regulation of everything from high-sugar or high-sodium items to energy drinks. While the FDA hasn’t always lived up to these goals — for instance, the agency has stalled to finalize Obamacare’s calorie-reporting requirements for food chains largely because it’s worried about accommodating special interests — their victory against Butterfly Bakery shows that food makers still shouldn’t get carried away with their sugar highs.

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Federal Appeals Court Shuts Down Suspicionless Searches Of Laptops At The Border

Given enough time, law enforcement can break through the password that blocks access to a laptop. They can also access password-encrypted files and potentially even read the files a user deleted from their computer. As a recent opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit puts it, “[i]t is as if a search of a person’s suitcase could reveal not only what the bag contained on the current trip, but everything it had ever carried.”

In light of the sweeping and unpredictable nature of laptop and similar searches, the court’s opinion places an important new restriction on government searches of electronic devices as the border. As a general rule, “the long-standing right of the sovereign to protect itself by stopping and examining persons and property crossing into this country” justifies nearly any search of a person crossing into the United States from another country. So if you are secreting contraband away in your luggage, you are out of luck. As the Ninth Circuit’s opinion explains, however, searches of electronic devices are far greater intrusions into a traveler’s privacy, and thus must be justified by a greater degree of suspicion before they can occur:

The amount of private information carried by international travelers was traditionally circumscribed by the size of the traveler’s luggage or automobile. That is no longer the case. Electronic devices are capable of storing warehouses full of information. The average 400-gigabyte laptop hard drive can store over 200 million pages—the equivalent of five floors of a typical academic library. Even a car full of packed suitcases with sensitive documents cannot hold a candle to the sheer, and ever-increasing, capacity of digital storage.

The nature of the contents of electronic devices differs from that of luggage as well. Laptop computers, iPads and the like are simultaneously offices and personal diaries. They contain the most intimate details of our lives: financial records, confidential business documents, medical records and private emails. This type of material implicates the Fourth Amendment’s specific guarantee of the people’s right to be secure in their “papers.” The express listing of papers “reflects the Founders’ deep concern with safeguarding the privacy of thoughts and ideas—what we might call freedom of conscience—from invasion by the government.” These records are expected to be kept private and this expectation is “one that society is prepared to recognize as ‘reasonable.’”

The upshot of this opinion is that border agents cannot randomly select a person and comb through their laptop for incriminating data, nor can they conduct a comprehensive search of every iPad that enters the United States. Rather, before conducting a complete search of an electronic device, they must have “reasonable suspicion” that the search will uncover evidence of a crime.

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Beijing Shuts Factories as Smog Levels Surge

Cyclists and bikers stop at a traffic light, as buildings are faintly seen, rear, shrouded in a haze of smog in Beijing. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)

Beijing temporarily shut down 103 heavily polluting factories and took 30 percent of government vehicles off roads to combat dangerously high air pollution, state media reported on Tuesday, but the capital's air remained hazardous despite the measures.

Air quality in Beijing has mostly stayed above "very unhealthy" and "hazardous" levels for about two weeks. On Tuesday, it hit 517 on an index maintained by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which described the pollution as "Beyond Index".

Pollution in Beijing regularly exceeds 500 on an index that measures particulate matter in the air with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers. Above 300 is considered hazardous, while the World Health Organisation recommends a daily level of no more than 20.

(Read More: Beijing's Toxic Smog Was Years in the Making)

Earlier this month pollution hit a record, 30-45 times above recommended safety levels, blanketing the city in a thick, noxious cloud that grounded flights and forced people indoors.

Beijing's pollution problem has caused widespread public outrage, alarming the ruling Communist Party, which has failed to rein in pollution despite repeated pledges to get tough.

Premier Wen Jiabao told top leaders at a forum that the "recent fog and haze have affected the people's normal life and health".

"We should take effective measures to speed up the enhancement of our industrial structure, push for energy conservation and build an ecological civilization," Wen was quoted as saying on state television. "Use actions so that the people can see hope."

State news agency Xinhua said the Beijing municipal government held an urgent meeting on Tuesday "for the emergency work of controlling the heavy air pollution".

(Read More: 'Beijing Cough'—Why Residents Are Insulted by Moniker)

"All counties, departments, businesses and institutions should take the lead in suspending the service of 30 percent of official vehicles," Xinhua said. Beijing would also shut down 103 heavily polluting businesses.

But the emergency measures only last until Thursday.

The government has already announced that it would take 180,000 old vehicles off the roads in Beijing this year and control the "excessive" growth of new car sales in the city.

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