Apr 14 2008

Legal advice to food companies: health claims

As far as I can tell, health claims are completely out of control and food companies can say practically anything they want to about the health benefits of their products or ingredients. Not so, says a lawyer who steers food companies “to the bucks, not the courts.” His ten rules suggest the need for honesty and integrity (what a concept!). My favorite: “Just because others do it, doesn’t mean it’s OK.” Now, if we could just get Congress to agree that health claims ought to have some real science behind them….

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[...] Tuulevi wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptAs far as I can tell, health claims are completely out of control and it looks like food companies can say practically anything they want about the health benefits of their products or ingredients. Not so, says a lawyer who steers food … [...]

[...] Tuulevi wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptAs far as I can tell, health claims are completely out of control and it looks like food companies can say practically anything they want about the health benefits of their products or ingredients. Not so, says a lawyer who steers food … [...]

[...] Legal advice to food companies: health claims [...]

[...] Legal advice to food companies:healthclaims [...]

[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptAs far as I can tell, health claims are completely out of control and it looks like food companies can say practically anything they want about the health benefits of their products or ingredients. Not so, says a lawyer who steers food … [...]

  • Sheila
  • April 15, 2008
  • 1:31 pm

Aw, come on…you want REAL science to interfere with the claims made on packages and in ads? tsk,tsk.

  • Anton
  • April 17, 2008
  • 4:13 pm

Ah, but what about the health claims tossed off left and right by ‘dieticians’ and ‘nutritionists’ in the popular media.

What about the ‘dietician’ on the Today show who claims “whole grains protect against cardiovascular disease”. . . broccoli helps fight cancer. . . eating fiber can help you lose weight.’

They say things like this all the time, unsubstantiated, uncited, unchallenged. They get a free pass.

Why not make THEM demonstrate, with multiple, peer-reviewed, double-blind, controlled studies that what THEY say so blithely is true.

I think you’d find a lot of ‘dieticians’ on the block for spouting just as much guesswork and nonsense as food marketers do.

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