Food Roundup: Kraft and P&G Settlement, Farm Worker Visa Rules, Whole Foods Complaint, and More

Kraft and P&G settle — Kraft and Proctor & Gamble announced that they have settled their ongoing series of patent infringement lawsuits and counter-lawsuits. The battle started when P&G accused Kraft’s Maxwell House of copying its Folgers coffee containers. The details of the settlement were not made public. [Source: AP]

New farm worker visa rules take effect Saturday — A federal judge turned down a a request from farm workers groups to block new rules that will make it easier to get immigration visas for temporary farm workers. Farmworker Justice and the United Farm Workers say the new visa rules will lower wages and worsen labor conditions for farm workers, but the judge said the groups did not present enough evidence of their claims. The new rules will go into effect this weekend, just days before the Bush Administration leaves office. [Source: AP]

Whole Foods re-files FTC complaint — The grocery chain resubmitted its petition against the Federal Trade Commission to a different court in order to speed up the decision on whether its acquisition of Wild Oats will be deemed in violation of antitrust laws. Whole Foods is suing because the FTC reopened its investigation a year after the deal’s initial clearance by federal judges, and the transition of many stores is already well underway. [Source: AP]

More food recalls due to mislabeling than to contamination — A study by RSSL consultants found that in both the US and the UK, the most common reason for food recalls is that a company fails to list an allergen on the packaging. Such labeling problems account for about half of all food product recalls in both countries, the researchers found. In comparison, the melamine scare led to very few recalls. [Source: Just-Food]