Cracking Down on Misleading Food Labels
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No trans fats! Heart healthy! Helps prevent cancer! We've all seen these misleading food labels--some of us have been suckered in by them. And now the FDA is cracking down, writes the editors of The New York Times. In March, the FDA publicized 17 letters it had sent to food companies about their bad food labeling practices--including overblown claims of nutritional value, healing or curing capabilities, and not disclosing ingredients that are less than "heart healthy."
Writes the Times:
Several products, including Gorton’s Fish Fillets and Dreyer’s bite-size Dibs ice cream snacks, were cited for labels boasting that they contained no trans fat, even though they had high levels of saturated fat. POM pomegranate juice was cited for misleading claims on the company’s Web site, which is listed on juice bottles, that said the juice could prevent or cure disease like hypertension, diabetes and cancer.
This could be yet another signal that the relaxed attitude of the last administration are over, according to the Times. The next step would be to end the letter writing and make some permanent changes to the regulations.
(Photo credit: h-bomb; C.C. 2.0)
