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  The Society for Consumer Advocates and Mavens

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FOOD AND FOOD SUPPLEMENT CLAIMS

Too many food and food supplement processors may be using "skimpy" evidence to make the claims they make in their advertisements and on pakcage labels! How much evidence does it take to make a substantiated claim in an ad anyway? Apparently it takes just one good study or numerous questionable studies and all the evidence or research results do not even need to be completely collected and/or compiled yet to get away with using the potentially suspect evidence or biased results to make claims. To date, the U.S. government has no concrete, set standards for everyone to follow, so conceivably advertisers can for a time get away with claiming almost anything in their ads and on package labels. As usual it is buyer beware!

Claims supposedly supported by "well-controlled clinical studies" may be supported by little or no scientific evidence! For example, claims that certain types of vitamins may help relieve stress may be supported by no scientifically recognized, empirical evidence and consumers are not likely to see this mentioned anywhere in the advertisement or on the package label.

Advertiser claims are not typically even evaluated by the Food And Drug Administration (FDA) to see if they are based on sound evidence unless the government gets a barrage of consumer complaints, which rarely ever happens!

Too many claims found on package labels and in ads have no disclaimers to legally qualify the claims made! Even though many ads or package labels do not, potentially every ad and package label should have a disclaimer, or at least some small, fine print somewhere in the ad or on the package label, to legally qualify what the big print in the ad or on the package label tries to get away with promoting!

Disclaimers, or legal qualifying language, at least gives a hint to consumers that there may be some doubt or questions that could be raised concerning the claims being made in an advertisement or on the package label. Without any strict governmental policy, requirements, rules and/or regulations concerning ad or package label disclaimers, think of it as a "look the other way" policy. Is this smart government? This seems to be the policy of many governmental regulatory bodies at least until a bunch of consumer complaints, complaints from competitors, consumer advocates, whistleblowers or the media are made public.

Consequently, beware of the "claim game". While somewhat truthful, the claims made, followed by their subsequent disclaimers, all of them may be unclear, exaggerated, confusing and/or misleading!

So, what is the only way to know if a product claim, or a service claim, is honest or not? You may have to find out for yourself. Do not rely on government intervention or regulations. For example, a claim that a product "burns away fat" may just end up burning a hole in your wallet!

SUPPLEMENTAL SOURCE: NUTRITION ACTION HEALTH LETTER SEPTEMBER 1997

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