Fakers in the food aisles. .It's been more than a decade since Congress passed a law to clean up deceptive claims on food labels. Now the food industry--encouraged by a hands-off Food and Drug Administration--is turning back the clock. Taking a cue from the loosely regulated supplement industry, respected companies like Tropicana, General Mills  This article or section may contain a proseline.Please help [ convert this timeline] into prose or, if necessary, a . , and Sunsweet are making daring claims that their products can help consumers lose weight, feel energetic, and ward off wrinkles (see cover story). But that's just one facet of the dishonesty. In the last few months, we've found that chicanery sometimes extends to companies' nutrition information. For instance: * A McDonald's reduced-fat ice cream cone An ice cream cone or cornet is a cone-shaped pastry, usually made of a wafer similar in texture to a waffle, in which ice cream is served, allowing it to be eaten without a bowl or spoon. weighs 90 grams and has 150 calories and three grams of saturated fat saturated fat, any solid fat that is an ester of glycerol and a saturated fatty acid. The molecules of a saturated fat have only single bonds between carbon atoms; if double bonds are present in the fatty acid portion of the molecule, the fat is said to be , according to the company. Earlier this year, we bought ten reduced-fat cones at five McDonald's in the Washington, D.C., area. Not one weighed 90 grams. They averaged 135 grams (that's 50 percent more), giving each reduced-fat cone 225 calories and 4 1/2 grams of heart-damaging saturated fat--more than a fifth of a day's worth. Oops. * Laura's Lean Beef is leaner than most other companies' ground beef and steaks. But when we sent 30 Laura's ribeye and strip steaks purchased in five cities to an independent lab, we found twice the saturated fat and 40 percent more calories than the labels state. Although Laura's strip steaks are certified to use the American Heart Association's "heart-check" logo on their labels, only one of the 14 strip steaks we analyzed met the AHA's saturated-fat limits. (Two steaks had three times the limit.) And although the AHA has yanked its certification off Laura's ribeye steaks, we found the AHA logo on five out of the 16 ribeyes we bought. We've asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA USDA, n.pr See United States Department of Agriculture. ) and the Heart Association to stop the deceptions. (If you've bought Laura's steaks and feel deceived, drop a note to lauraslabels@cspinet.org or to CSPI/Laura's, 1875 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20009.) What those examples prove is that the nation's food cops are asleep on the beat. Clearly, most companies are honest, but the few dishonest ones poison the well
Poison the Well (commonly abbreviated as PTW or said PT-Dub) are a hardcore band from Miami, Florida currently signed to Ferret Music. of consumer trust. Don't they realize that if they lose the public's confidence, nobody will believe any claims? It's high time that Congress gave the FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. and the USDA the funding they need to enforce truth-in-labeling rules. In the meantime Adv. 1. in the meantime - during the intervening time; "meanwhile I will not think about the problem"; "meantime he was attentive to his other interests"; "in the meantime the police were notified" meantime, meanwhile , it's buyer beware. Michael F. Jacobson Michael F. Jacobson, who holds a Ph.D. in microbiology, co-founded the Center for Science in the Public Interest in 1971, along with two fellow scientists he met while working at the Center for the Study of Responsive Law. , Ph.D. Executive Director Center for Science in the Public Interest |
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