2011 Food and Beverage Report - SupplySide East
Health claims have made headlines lately—and not always for the right reasons. First there was last summer’s Federal Trade Commission
action against the Kellogg Company, resulting in a settlement barring the manufacturer from making cognitive health claims for its Frosted Mini-Wheats cereal. Later, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) petitioned FDA to prohibit qualified health and structure/ function claims for foods. This March, FDA sent letters to 17 manufacturers, including Dreyer’s, Nestlé and POM Wonderful, warning them that labeling on 22 of their products violated the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. And barely two months later, the Institutes of Medicine (IOM) issued a report calling into question
the scientific rigor with which FDA evaluates biomarker evidence in health-claim proposals.
Surely, this isn’t the press that FDA, manufacturers or Congress had in mind when the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 (NLEA) included provisions for food companies to provide “additional health information” to consumers by way of health claims on packages. But, since the act’s passage, health claims have been both a blessing and a curse, giving manufacturers an opportunity to celebrate their products’ health-giving potential, and making them a popular target for skeptics. When navigating this regulatory and public-relations minefield, it’s best to arm yourself with a clear understanding of the laws, as well as a healthy dose of discretion.
