FDA Hits Back Against Stupid Food Labeling

by Katherine Gustafson

categories: childhood nutrition, Food Safety, Health, Policy

Published October 23, 2009 @ 12:00PM PT

UPDATE: Smart choices labeling scheme gets the axe!

Thank goodness, the FDA has sat up and noticed that someone is trying to pass Froot Loops off as health food. The agency's target is the Smart Choices front-of-package (FOP) labeling scheme, an effort by industry players to claim that experts say their foods, including some high-sugar and high-fat items, are better-for-you selections.

The program has drawn widespread ridicule, consternation and resistance, including a petition organized by Change.org in which 4,000+ signatories prevailed on The American Dietetic Association, the American Diabetes Association and Tufts University to request that the Smart Choices board remove their names from the initiative's Website. In September, Representative Rosa L. DeLauro, Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agricultural Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, called for the FDA to launch an investigation into the program.

You know things are bad when the box with the blatant misspelling is the one labeled “smart” and members of congress are up in arms.

Well, the FDA is on the case. Turns out there are these little things called the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which bars misleading statements on food labels, and the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, which gives the FDA authority to bring the smack-down on misleading labelers.

Get your popcorn; a smack-down is in the works.

“FDA will proceed with enforcement action against products that bear FOP labeling that are explicit or implied nutrient content claims and that are not consistent with current nutrient content claim requirements,” writes Barbara O. Schneeman, Director of the Office of Nutrition, Labeling and Dietary Supplements at the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in a firm “Dear Industry” letter. “FDA will also proceed with enforcement action where such FOP labeling or labeling systems are used in a manner that is false or misleading.”

Bladow!

Want to know more? Thanks to Marion Nestle at Food Politics, I can point you toward a useful backgrounder on the issue (PDF) as well as a letter (PDF) from Margaret Hamburg, Commissioner of Food and Drugs, to Chairwoman DeLauro in response to her complaint about the Smart Choices program.

I’m glad to see the FDA doing its job. Let’s not breathe a sigh of relief, though, until we see whether all this bluster is for real or if it’s just a government agency’s own misleading front-of-package label.

Photo courtesy of dno1967 via flickr