A new report from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council recommends that the federal government establish a centralized food safety data and analysis center and develop a specialized food safety inspections workforce.  Ultimately, the research groups recommend that all food safety activities be centralized into a single, dedicated agency. The report pointed to the growing number of food recalls and confirmed that the Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for overseeing the safety of 80% of the nation's food supply, is falling short in that mission due to "impediments to efficient use of its …

AdMob's founder Omar Hamoui has posted on the company blog a response to Apple’s updated Terms of Service for iPhone app developers. He wants to make it clear the change is not in the best interests of users or developers. The advertising terms both target companies with competitive mobile technologies, such as Google, as well as any company whose primary business is not serving mobile ads, Hamoui writes. "This change threatens to decrease, or even eliminate. revenue that helps to support tens of thousands of developers. The terms hurt both large and small developers by severely limiting their …

Sprint's estimate of initial sales for the HTC Evo 4G turned out to be too good to be true. The carrier has acknowledged that it overstated first-day sales of the Evo, the first 4G phone released in the U.S. Sprint said Monday that Friday sales were three times the number of Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre devices sold during their first three days combined. But Evo sales were actually in line with the number of Instinct and Pre phones sold in their first three days combined. "We inadvertently erred in the comparison," said Sprint in a statement. The overstatement …

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) is taking entries now for the 10th annual Multicultural Excellence Awards for multicultural advertising and marketing campaigns.   The ANA says winners will be announced at the ANA's 12th Annual Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference, November 7-9 in Miami, Fla. For a campaign to be eligible, it must have appeared between June 2009 and June 2010, per the association.   The ANA has added a new category this time for exceptional work in print advertising. Other categories are:   Multicultural/Diversity: · African American · Asian · General Market · Hispanic · LGBT Media: · Digital Media · Radio · Print Significant Business …

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was ordered today to refrain from posting updates about his corruption trial to his Twitter account. But Judge James Zagel, presiding over the trial, said that the former politician can continue to make statements about his case to the press, but warned that anything he says can be used against him should he testify, according to the Chicago Tribune.

You know the health-care system is screwed up when the head of Pfizer uses a prison analogy to describe the Kafka-esque alienation of going into the hospital for a minor procedure. Speaking at the Innovation Forum, in New York on Tuesday, Jeff Kindler, Pfizer's chairman and CEO, said his experience evinces many of things that have kept the business of healthcare well behind of consumer markets in sophistication. "The very idea of being a patient is anathema," said Kindler. "To people of my generation – the 'me' generation – who like to be in control, the experience begins with …

Genworth wants to give good parenting the props it deserves. The Richmond, Va.-based financial services company has created a new Facebook fan page devoted to the celebration of parenthood.  The site, (www.genworth.com/celebrates), invites browsers to share a story about a time when their parents came through for them "...when it mattered most."  A TV spot debuts this month with a Father's Day theme, encouraging people to share a supportive story about their Dad on the page. Genworth first began using Facebook in February 2009, with national ads about the site launching in November 2009.  The "Caregiver" …

Coach says its shift last year to lower price points continues to pay off, and that it will keep up the momentum by adding even more price assortment to its luxury offerings. "We feel very good about our positioning," chairman/CEO Lew Frankfort told investors at the Piper Jaffray 30th Annual Consumer Conference in New York. "Consumers have responded very well to shifting assortments, and the greater opportunity to purchase Coach at a lower price than a year ago." The company began the shift last year with the introduction of its Poppy line, Michael Tucci, president of the chain's …

The sun, as in the star that gives us warmth and light, visits Sony's Innovation Center in a new television commercial promoting the company's Internet device, Dash. In the commercial, the sun -- represented as a suit-wearing man of flames -- is impressed by the Dash and its ability to give people exactly what they want when they wake up in the morning (such as headlines, weather, music) directly from the Internet. However, when the sun pats an employee on the shoulder in congratulations, he inadvertently sets the employee's arm on fire.

While the Internet and social media are a potential boon to market researchers, they've also raised concerns and ongoing debate about methodology and projectability of results. Now, one social media-based research firm is charging into the fray with a report that maintains that today's empowered consumers and marketers' need for faster, actionable insights requires an approach that combines the strengths of newer, "humanistic" approaches with those of traditional, experimentally-based research. The principals of Communispace, which employs relatively small (generally 300-500) proprietary communities for market research clients such as The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo and GlaxoSmithKline, say that their goal …