Tuesday, December 23, 2008

C*ke Shrugs off FDA Warning Over Nutritional Claims.

http://tinyurl.com/DietCokePlus

The Food And Drug Administration, an agency of the United States government, has issued a warning letter chiding the C*ca C*la B*ttling C*mpany for violating their guidelines for marketing food products with nutrient claims.

In May of 2007 the C*ca C*la company introduced a product called Diet C*ke Plus. Promotional material for the product states it contains vitamins and minerals. Specifically, Vitamin B, zinc and magnesium.

The FDA has very clear guidelines covering certain terminologies. Terms such as bigger or top grade or best have specific definitions which must be met in order for the terms to be used. "Plus," when used in reference to nutritional content, means that the product contains 10% more of a specific ingredient than similar products in the same category.
Since diet cola beverages traditionally do not contain nutrients, it would be hard to define what would constitute "10% more".

In fact, the FDA's position is that it is inappropriate to add or advertise the nutritional content of "snack food" products which traditionally do not have any nutritional value.

The FDA warning letter dated December 10th asks C*ca C*la to revise the products labeling within 15 days.

A spokesman for the C*ca C*la company stated that they believe the current labeling complies with FDA policies and regulations and that the matter does not involve health of safety issues.

FDA warning letters are not legally binding but if ignored can lead to the violating company being taken to court.

The warning letter was posted online on Tuesday and C*ke stock dropped 69 cents.

--------

To editorialize a bit in a way I hope will be informative...

Unlike the spokesman for the beverage company, I would consider the topic of nutrition to be a health issue.

Recent articles about nutrition, diet and diabetes have stated that recent research suggests that low calorie or zero calorie artificial sweeteners can cause weight gain by actually stimulating the body's cravings for sweet foods and drinks.

I do not know what constitutes 10% more than nothing or how that would be defined or determined.

I do think it's interesting that Vitamin B-12 and zinc are allegedly effective as minor sexual stimulants and are ingredients often found in commercially available "aphrodisiac placebo" products. Or as I like to call them, "boner pills".

Is this a product you want your children drinking? Or your teenagers? Even the decaffeinated version?

Labels: