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  The Society for Consumer Advocates and Mavens

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FOOD LABELING DOUBLETALK

These days food companies may not bother with promoting or advertising any RELIABLE "health" claims because they can instead simply make "structure" and/or "function" claims, which many consumers feel "sound like" health claims, but are instead UNRELIABLE claims backed up by neither evidence nor government approval. Structure or function claims can state just about anything and possibly suffer no government reprisals for misleading or deceiving the public! Studies point out that consumers may not be able to easily distinguish between health claims or function/structure claims. Many structure or function claims use "hollow bombast" or "hype", words like "maintains", "supports", "optimizes" and/or "enhances".

For example, if a product says "helps restore sexual performance" this is a health claim but no government approval is needed to say "arouses sexual desire". This is a structure or function claim. Other structure/function claims used instead of health claims are as follows: "Helps maintain normal cholesterol levels" instead of "lowers cholesterol". "Suppresses appetite to aid weight loss" instead of "suppresses appetite to treat obesity". "Relieves occasional heartburn" instead of "relieves persistent heartburn". Other "buzz words" that indicate structure/function claims that need no government approval are: Improves, promotes, boosts, for common symptoms, helps enhance, relieves, and prevents.

The law says that structure or function claims cannot be misleading but the Food And Drug Administration (FDA) has never said how much evidence is necessary to substantiate a claim. The resulting "free-for-all" may confuse consumers.

The food supplement industry especially has received a free ride to make big bucks with structure/function claims so why bother with health claims. However, concerning structure/function claims, food companies do not even have to get government approval like supplement companies do.

Further confusing consumers the FDA now allows health claims to be advertised for foods based on preliminary evidence as long as somewhere on the food package label, probably in small, fine print, it must say "this evidence is not yet conclusive".

Remember, if consumers lose faith in food product or food supplement claims because the FDA or U.S. Department Of Agriculture (USDA) too often chooses not to enforce truth-in-labeling rules then, in time, the public may not end up believing ANY claims!

SUPPLEMENTAL SOURCE: NUTRITION ACTION HEALTH LETTER JUNE 2003

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