The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently ruled in favor of the Organic Trade Association (OTA) in a landmark case that would have prevented consumers in Ohio from knowing whether products on grocery store shelves were produced without synthetic growth hormones.

“OTA believes consumers have a right to know how their food was produced, and organic farmers and manufacturers should be allowed to tell them,” said Christine Bushway, CEO of OTA, the leading voice for the $26.6 billion organic industry in North America. “We are pleased the court agrees.”

The OTA and its members, including Horizon Organic® (Boulder, CO), Organic Valley® (LaFarge, WI) and Stonyfield Organic® (Londonderry, NH), filed the appeal in conjunction with the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA). The overwhelming majority of Americans seeks this information on product labels, they said. The Consumer Reports National Research Center polled more than 1,000 people nationwide on various food labeling issues; some 76 percent of those polled were concerned with ‘dairy cows given synthetic growth hormones’ and 88 percent agreed that ‘milk from cows raised without synthetic bovine growth hormone should be allowed to be labeled as such.’ The United States is in the minority among industrialized nations by allowing the use of synthetic growth hormones to artificially stimulate milk production in dairy herds. The practice is already prohibited in Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and in the 27 countries of the European Union. The best way for consumers to be sure they are choosing products produced without the use of synthetic growth hormones (rBGH), genetically engineered organisms (GMOs), antibiotics and toxic and persistent pesticides is to look for the organic label, OTA continued.

The court’s decision upholds consumers’ rights to receive truthful information about organic production practices on the labels of their milk and other dairy products, said OTA. Additionally, it recognizes the rights of organic dairy farmers and processors to communicate truthfully with consumers regarding federally regulated organic production practices under the USDA Organic seal.

Tree of Life (St. Augustine, FL) recently announced a special program that will take place throughout the month of October, in which the company will buy back MSI scanners from its customers and replace them with the EasyTree™ or EasyTree Plus™ multi-vendor ordering systems.

The EasyTree program features the latest catalog data from Tree of Life and over 500 direct suppliers in the sector (more than 5,000 brands). EasyTree Plus adds full multi-distributor support to the program allowing industry retailers to replace any and all single-vendor ordering devices and manual ordering methods with one intelligent, commercial-grade ordering device.

“At Tree of Life, we feel it is our responsibility to help retailers adopt more modern technologies so they can compete effectively in today’s marketplace. That is the impetus behind this MSI scanner buy-back program,” said Greg Leonard, senior vice president of natural sales. “While MSI units have served their purpose well over the years, the EasyTree system provides retailers with many great benefits including complete multi-vendor support, electronic deal alerts and price change notifications, and extensive information on the handheld ordering device to facilitate better ordering decisions and optimum inventory management. With the financial support that Tree of Life is providing on the EasyTree programs and the additional incentive of the October MSI scanner buy-back program, migration to these new systems is straight forward and very affordable.”

For more information on the October 2010 MSI Scanner Buy-Back Program, contact your Tree of Life territory manager or call (888) 248-1120.

Ganeden Biotech, Inc. (Mayfield Heights, OH), maker of the patented probiotic strain GanedenBC30®, recently announced the appointment of Glanbia Nutritionals (Evanston, IL), global ingredient and micronutrient premix company, as its primary North American distributor of GanedenBC30.

Ganeden Biotech, which already has a strong footing in the ingredient industry with more than 50 national and international foods, beverages and nutritional supplements containing GanedenBC30 as an added ingredient, will be able to capitalize on Glanbia’s distribution expertise and vast warehouse network located throughout North America.

“To become a partner of Glanbia Nutritionals is an incredible opportunity,” said Andrew Lefkowitz, Ganeden Biotech president and CEO. “Glanbia has a vast distribution base throughout the US and we are simply thrilled that GanedenBC30 is going to be readily accessible to companies looking to use our probiotic to enhance their products.”

Unlike many currently available probiotic ingredients, GanedenBC30 is able to survive harsh manufacturing processes, including baking, freezing, boiling and high pressure, said the company. This is due to the naturally occurring layer of organic material that protects the genetic core of the bacteria, allowing GanedenBC30 to survive.

“Ganeden’s probiotics are a great fit with our product portfolio because they meet our strict stability requirements for food and beverage applications,” said Richard Hazel, CEO of Glanbia Nutritionals, Inc. “We are pleased with the addition of GanedenBC30, which now allows us to work with applications that weren’t previously thought possible. The new distribution partnership will also benefit Glanbia Nutritionals by furthering our aim of expanding nationwide leadership in the ingredient industry.”

For more information about Ganeden Biotech, call (800) 456-0276 or visit www.digestiveadvantage.com. To learn more about Glanbia Nutritionals, call (847) 563-4100 or visit www.glanbianutritionals.com.

Due to popular demand, the international food and nutrition policy consultancy EAS will be holding another workshop entitled “Building a Regulatory Strategy for Marketing Food Supplements in Europe: The key steps to a successful product launch,” on November 25, 2010 in Brussels, Belgium.

During this one-day workshop, the EAS team of regulatory experts will be guiding participants through the key steps to be followed when launching food supplement products in Europe. Presentations given will help companies to find the proper strategy for different types of food supplements and help them to avoid the common pitfalls to a successful product launch.

“Despite the fact that the EU seems to be moving ahead with the harmonization of EU food legislation, a company wishing to market a food supplement product across Europe must still comply with a combination of EU and national laws. Manufacturers are still often facing the necessity of country-specific reformulation of products containing in particular other food ingredients such as herbs, amino acids and other bioactive substances, which are still regulated at the national level,” explained EAS Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Manager Efi Leontopoulou, one of the workshop presenters. “It is therefore essential to develop a good knowledge of the pan-European regulatory environment and decide on the correct strategy to overcome the regulatory challenges to marketing products across the EU.”

Participants will also be taken through key legislations and practices in Europe which affect the marketing of food supplements, from national approaches to ingredients to rules on novel foods and health claims.

“The EU claims regulation represents one of the major hurdles for the future marketing of food supplements in Europe. A first ban on a wide range of generic Article 13 health claims had initially been foreseen for 2011. However, a recent positive development this autumn has brought some delay to the timescale initially thought and delayed the transition period. This is the time by which Member States must enforce this ban and when the claims approved can lawfully be marketed across the EU, as long as they are in line with existing national provisions. We will therefore provide recommendations to companies on how they can continue to benefit from this period and make claims as well as use brand names for their ingredients and products” said Stefanie Geiser EAS-Italy regulatory affairs manager and speaker at the workshop. “In our workshop we will in particular present the new expected timelines for the Article 13 transition period for different claims and also provide an update of the status of EFSA evaluation results for Article 13.5/14 claims and latest trends on required EFSA claims substantiation standards.”

As well as Efi Leontopoulou and Stefanie Geiser, experts of the EAS Regulatory Affairs team, including Regulatory Adviser Pieter Lagae and EAS Food Law Adviser Elodie Lebastard, will be presenting at the workshop.

The workshop is limited to 25 attendees to ensure participants have the opportunity to be given clear advice on specific issues they face within their companies regarding regulatory strategies for marketing their products.

Visit http://www.eas.eu/Event.aspx?eventid=30 to secure placement, e-mail workshop@eas.eu or contact Cindy Garcet at +32 2 218 14 70.