Consumer Rights Exam 3

• -Increase in consumption of processed foods
• -Food is the third most expensive monthly item consumers are buying behind housing and transportation
• -Increased portion sizes (size of fountain drink has jumped from 7 oz in 1955 to 32 oz in 1990)

• Government agencies
• Food instustry
• Consumer advocates
• Consumers

• -Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• -Food and drug administration (FDA)
• -U.S. Department of Agriculture (EPA)

• Regulates pesticides and water quality standards
• Is involved with the concern with monsanto

Use of biotechnology to modify the genetic material of living cells

• FDA, EPA, and USDA
• No current labeling required, there is a call by consumer groups to require

• Nutruition label and claims
• Safety and purity of foods (Except meat and poultry)
• Standards of identity
• Food additives
• Unsanitary, unsafe, adulterated or mislabeled products
• Actions

-Voluntary Recall - peanut butter made in large batches recalled

-Seizure (seise and destroy products) -FDA seized San Fransisco Natural Food Co. because it was contaminated by dead mice, droppings and urine

-Injuction (prevent co. from specific act) - a company that knew their product has salmonella and the FDA step in to stop them from doing that

-Prosecution (Civil and/or criminal charges)

• Health claims
• -Regulated by FDA/FTC
• -Must be supported by "weight of scientific evidence"

• Substances added to food intentionally or by accident (ex. strand of hair)
• Why
• -Maintain/improve nutrition
• -Maintain freshness
• -Help in processing or preparation
• -Alter taste or apperance

• Enforce laws and regulations concerning
• -Meat, poultry, eggs and dairy
• -Nutrition Education
• Voluntary Grading system 
• -USDA prime -young well fed cattle
• -USDA select
• -USDA grade a- poultry
• Hazard analysis and critical control points
• Conflicts of interest
• -Increase demand/promotion
• -Nutrition education

• 100% organic = has only organic ingredients
• Organic = 95% - 100% organic ingredients
• Made with organic ingredients = 70% of the ingredients are organic
• Contains organic ingredients = contains less then 70% organic ingredients

• About 76 million cases a year
• -About 325000 require hospitalization
• -More than 5000 die

• Exposing food to radiation to kill potentially harmful pathogens that cause food-borne illness
• -Bacteria, parasites, insects, fungi

Financial or in-kind support extended to an economic sector (or institution, business, or individual) to promote specific economic and social policies

• -Over 90% in U.S. goes to corn, wheat, soybeans, rice
• -3/4 of subsidy money goes to top 10% of recipients
• -May be helping factory farms buy out small farms

• Corn syrup
• Crystalline fructose
• Dextrose 
• Fructose
• Malt
• Syrup
• High fructose corn syrup

• Ex. "free range" poultry regulation
• -Chickens must "have access to the outdoors for an undetermined period each day"
• Term to look for: pastured eggs and meat, allowed to roam in open pastures

• Plant based
• -70%-90% corn/soybean meal
• -Remaining 10-30% other
• *PRocessed feathers
• *Plastic pellets
• *Meat and bone meal
• *Poultry litter -banned in 2004
• *Cow blood -banned in 2004

Fish meal, fish oil; meat, bone feather meal

• Animal-protein products are nutritional ingredients
• Nitrogen level in poultry litter high
• "Recycling" waste

• Feed can become contaminated
• Toxins often stored in fat
• Lack of FDA rules and enforcement

• Malpractice insurance
• -Insurance docters carry in case they are sued
• -about $100,000/year
• Research & development
• Insurance company control

• -Federal health insurance program for American 65+ & some with disabilities
• -Fraud abuse and billing errors accounted for $12 billion dollars a year

• Use employer health care coverage
• Use generic drugs & prescription mail order programs
• Use physicians who participate in your health care plan
• Ask how much services cost
• Ask questions
• Use reviews of doctors online

• Ability to live life fully with optimal health and vitality
• -Includes physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, interpersonal, social, and environmental well-being

• State of being healthy, happy or prosperous
• Present health and expectation of continued health

Decisions consumers make about health care, including products and services purchased, insurance, lifestyle

• Run by insurance companies
• Has avoided insuring those with major problems
• Cost shifting for unisured

• Cure:
• Infectious Disease
• -Disease that can be passed from one person to another
• -Factors: viruses, bacteria
• Chronic disease
• -Disease that develops and continues over long period of time
• -Factors: lifestyle, genetics, environment

• Many providers of similar services
• Prices are not standardized and difficult to obtain
• Hard to deterine reliability
• Redress mechanism are inefficient

• Third party control unique to medical system
• Knowledge gap between providers and users

• Retail health clinics (CVS minute clinic)
• No insurance doctor offices
• Surgery auctions

• FDA
• -Pre-market review
• -Users fees to speed product approval
• -Limited authority
• Patents & generics
• Imported drugs

• Meridia (weight loss)
• -over 29 deaths
• -Recalled 2010
• Accutane (Acne)
• -Over 142 suicides involving accutane since 1982
• Serevent (Asthma)
• -Active ingredient: salmeterol
• -Clinical trial: more asthma

• 1994 Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act
• -Supplement companies can market new products w/o FDA approval
• *Cannot claim to prevent or cure a disease
• Health claims must be supported
• Limited quility control
• Herbals are untested
• Dietary supplements safety act of 2010 
• -Proposed, not yet passed

• Regulated by FDA
• Three level of risk
• -Level 1 (low risk) - must register device and company with FDA
• -Level 2 (medium risk)
• -Level 3 (high risk) - require clearance / approval to enter market

• FDA
• -Regulates cosmetics after released to public
• -no prior review or approval of ingredients or products
• -To remove from market you have to prove in court that it is inguring people, labeled incorrectly, or violates the law

• Consumers use a products much less than they intended to upon purchase
• Why?
• -Impulsiveness
• -Sale purchase
• -Function problems
• -Safety Concerns
• -Loss of interest
• -Life style change

• Consumers have limited capacity for processing information
• Thus, many consumers make a constructive choice

• Fatigue, stress, sleep deprivation
• Risk taking
• Bad judgement
• Distractions
• Intoxication
• Smoking in bed
• Improper use of seat helts, safety seats, air bags
• Nonuse of helmets & other safety equipment

the total of all the benefits of a course of action less all the costs

• People should know better
• Too much government is too expensive
• Limits freedom

• Product recalls
• Civil and criminal penalties
• Fine manufacturers who do not notify CPSC about problems with their products

• Part of department of transportation since 1966
• Goal: reduce deaths, injuries and property loseses from motor vehicle accidents, establish and enforce safety standards, investigate safety defects
• New car assessment

• Get recommendations
• Check BBB for complaint records
• Get multiple written estimates
• Get references and talk with people
• Check permit and inspection requirements
• Don't pay up front
• Pay by credit card if possible

• Check agency reputation
• Review credit card protections
• Pickpocketing
• Street marketers

• The internet is not equally accessible by all people
• "have and have nots"

• Product return policies
• Slow/poor costumer service
• Quality of merchandise

• Message sent to browser by web server
• Purposes: identify user, customize pages, save login info

• Someone steals your personal information and uses it fraudulently
• Costs time and money
• Can destroy credit and reputation

• Financial identity theft (bank account)
• Medical ID theft (insurance)
• Theft of a child's or deceased person's identity
• Synthetic Identity theft (using different peoples information to create a new person)
• Criminal ID theft
• Smart phone ID theft

• Average fraud amount per victim: 4607
• Estimated out of pocket cost for ID theft victims: 631
• More than 100 hours cleaning up a newly open fraudulent account

• "Dumpster Dive"
• Stolen wallet or purse
• Stolen mail
• Stolen records from employers
• Stolen online information

• Banking credit financial
• Business 
• Educational
• Government military
• Medical healthcare

• Unintended disclosure
• Hacking or malware
• Payment card graud
• Insider
• Physical loss
• Portable / stationary devices

• An attempt to "hook" you into revealing your personal and confidential information
• Consumer recieves emails that appear to come from legitimate business/organization

• Credit or debit cards
• A device reads and records credit card number to another electronic storage device

• Malicious software remotely installed on your computer
• -Can steal, damage or delete your files and other data
• Ex. spyware, trojans, viruses

• Harmful sites lure users by promising desired information
• Links to malicious websites:
• -Online search results
• -Sent via email
• -Social media pages

Identity Thieves intercept personal information from sites that don't have secure payment forms and companies that store debit and credit card information without proper safeguards

• Sites may compromise personal data
• Revealing too much such as:
• -Full name
• -Date of birth
• -Hometowm
• -Relationship status
• -School locations and graduation dates
• -Pet names
• -Other affiliations, interests and hobbies

• Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
• Department of Justice
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

• Passed October 1998
• Purpose: Made idenitty theft a federal crim
• Enforces of the act
• -Investigating Violations: US Secret Service, FBI, US Postal Inspection Service
• -Prosecution: Department of Justice

• Safegruard information
• -Shred financial documents
• -Protect your SS #
• -Don't Give out personal information unless you're sure who you're dealing with
• -Don't use obvious passwords
• -Keep information secure

• Monitor Financial Account/Billing Statements
• -What for mail or bills that don't arrive and denial of credit for no reason
• -Inspect your credit report - law entitles you get on free credit report a year
• -inspect financial statements -charges you didn't make

• Report Problems Quickly
• -Place a "fraud alert" on your credit reports
• -Equifax
• -Experian
• -TransUnion