FDA Aims to Protect Consumer Health With Label Warnings

FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg As the government continues grappling with calorie and nutrition labeling requirements to protect citizens' health, the Food and Drug Administration this week began cracking down on the current labeling of some major food producers for what it said were misleading claims on product packaging. Letters from the FDA went out to companies such as Gerber, Juicy Juice, Dreyer's, POM and Gorton's.

One of the main concerns voiced by the FDA was the claim on many food and beverage product labels that the goods inside contained zero trans fats - a claim the organization worries leads customers to believe the product is relatively healthful, when in fact many of them contain high levels of saturated fat and total fat. Similarly, some products claimed to be "cholesterol free" and to contain "less saturated fat than butter" but did not meet the legal requirements for touting such claims. Gerber and other makers of child products received warnings because of nutrition claims that the FDA found objectionable because certain dietary levels for nutrients don't exist yet for children younger than 2.

POM juice received a warning letter for "claims that it will treat, prevent, or cure diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and cancer. These types of claims are not allowed on food products," according to the FDA. This isn't the first time POM has had to answer for such claims: The company has been sued in both federal court and California state court over claims of false advertising and misleading marketing. Some of those suits were dismissed, others were settled.

FDA Commissioners Margaret Hamburg has made nutrition labeling in food products a priority of her tenure. Though new guidelines governing front-of-package labeling are currently being debated and researched, current standards are partially governed by the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic that requires truthful labeling. The companies receiving warning letters each have 15 days to inform the FDA of how they plan to improve or address the labeling in question.

Several states, including New York, have implemented calorie-labeling laws, and so far, the verdict is still out on how much impact such laws have on consumers' choices. One New York study showed that the law wasn't having much of an impact yet. But Corby Kummer at The Atlantic argues that such results shouldn't discourage lawmakers from implementing such rules: "Is the fact that it's really, really hard to stop smoking reason to take pressure off cigarette manufacturers or relax anti-smoking laws? Of course not. Even if a bit better than a quarter of fast-food restaurantgoers notice and are influenced by calorie labeling -- a percentage that seems to be emerging from initial and post-regulation studies--that will be a large part of the US population. If fast-food producers are pressured into lowering calories, however modestly, across the board or in significant areas, the whole public will be better off."

Photo credit:  U.S. Food and Drug Administration