American food products are commonly filled with substances used to enhance the shelf life, color and flavor of food, as well as enhance the vitamin content or nutritional value that may have been lost during processing. But did you know that a large portion of these added ingredients now in the U.S. market were classified as safe without any government oversight ? According to a new report by the Pew Health Group, at least 3000 ingredients have been given the go-ahead by none other than the companies that made them and benefit from their approval.

GAP's second stop on its American Whistleblower Tour took place last Wednesday at the University of Texas at Austin (UTA), in conjunction with the UTA School of Social Work's first annual Social Justice Week. Ken Kendrick, a Texas whistleblower who exposed that corporate wrongdoing led to the 2008-09 salmonella outbreak that sickened hundreds of people (and killed at least eight) joined me in a two-hour conversation about the important contributions whistleblowers make to promoting social justice, and the injustice of whistleblowers suffering retaliation and isolation for protecting the public interest.

Today the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food released a report to the UN General Assembly that explores the effects that the world-wide expansion of contract farming has on the right to food. The report describes how these contract arrangements, in which farmers agree to provide their products to processing or marketing companies at pre-set prices, can result in negative environmental, social and economic impacts, such as an increase in local food prices and the expanded use of fertilizers and pesticides at the expense of human health.

Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter’s report stresses the need to increase the rights of small-scale farmers in negotiations and dispute settlement processes. He found that farmers often have less information and literacy in negotiating these contracts, resulting in inequitable agreements that are heavily biased toward the buying firm. As a result, farmers struggle to reap the benefits from their produce and can wind up, in the words of De Schutter, as “disempowered laborers on their own land.”

The Listeria outbreak involving cantaloupe is approaching its fourth month. Over that time, 123 people in 26 states have been sickened (including 25 deaths and one miscarriage), and public confidence in our food safety system has eroded even further.

The public should demand better protocols, because the current system sure isn’t working. Epitomizing this is one key detail that has been lost in the shuffle of news coverage. Often, produce farms have “independent” inspectors monitoring the facilities to certify that everything is safe. But guess what? Jensen Farms, where the tainted cantaloupe has been tracked back to, passed its previous inspection with flying colors.

According to USA Today, the Jensen Farms packing plant received an audit score of 96 out of 100 a mere six days before the first person fell ill. The contracted auditing company, Primus Labs, somehow gave high marks to a facility that federal officials described Wednesday as unsanitary, reports the New York Times.

When people refer to the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), one might imagine inspectors monitoring a meat or poultry assembly line for contamination. A more accurate picture, as illustrated in John Munsell's 9-part series, would be of inspectors auditing paperwork -- specifically that of small plants -- while leaving the big packers free of real oversight.

Munsell, a former GAP client and whistleblower, tells the story of his own experience with FSIS in 2001 when they forced his small Montana meat plant out of business and refused to acknowledge that E. coli-tainted beef (which the agency discovered at his facility) had originated from meat-packing giant ConAgra.

Photo by flickr user justj0000lieCandy is good for you? That's essentially what General Mills is arguing, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The consumer advocacy group (and GAP coalition partner) filed a class action suit Friday against General Mills for portraying Fruit Snacks in a healthy light, "basically dressing up a cheap candy as if it were a fruit and charging a premium for it." Adweek reports:

In its complaint, CSPI alleges that the labeling on the packages for the products—Fruit Roll-Ups, Fruit by the Foot, and Fruit Gushers specifically—imply that the food is a lot healthier than it really is. Fruit Snacks are labeled as "fruit flavored snack," "naturally flavored, a "good source of Vitamin C", a low number of calories, "low fat," and "gluten free."

The suit cites several California laws governing misleading and deceptive advertising and fraudulent business practices, as well as Minnesota's Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act. (General Mills is based in Golden Valley, Minn.)

"In fact, Defendant’s Fruit Snacks contained trans fat, added sugars, and artificial food dyes; lacked significant amounts of real, natural fruit; and had no dietary fiber. Thus, although the Products were marketed as being healthful and nutritious for children and adults alike, selling these Fruit Snacks was little better than giving candy to children," the complaint reads.

The CEO and Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Wal-Mart China have resigned for personal reasons, the Associated Press reported yesterday, not long after a pork labeling scandal caused the retailer to close 13 outlets in the Chinese city of Chongqing.

The city's authorities detained 37 Wal-Mart China employees, and arrested two, who were tied to allegations that the stores fraudulently sold conventional pork labeled as higher-priced organic pork for the last two years. The company was fined $421,000.

Watch the NTDTelevision video below for the investigation recap: