There's no effective way to deal with corporate flim-flammers except taking their asses to court:
In recent weeks, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has filed two lawsuits against General Mills and McNeil Nutritionals over their claims on Nature Valley and Splenda Essentials products, and warned Welch’s it would sue unless the company changed the wording on its juice and fruit snacks. The Federal Trade Commission won settlements from companies like Dannon and Pom Wonderful for claims about the health benefits of their products. PepsiCo and Coca-Cola face dozens of lawsuits over claims that their orange juice products are “100% natural.”The latest playbook---like the one that paid off in the wave of tobacco litigation---could prove potent, as the food companies’ own lawyers have warned.
Other plaintiffs’ lawyers have largely taken aim at food products marketed as “healthy” or “natural,” subjective claims that can be easily disputed by expert witnesses. Unlike foods labeled “organic,” there are no federal standards for foods that are called “healthy” or “natural.”
The new batch of litigation argues that food companies are violating specific rules about ingredients and labels. Mr. Barrett’s group, for example, has brought a case against Chobani, the Greek yogurt maker, for listing “evaporated cane juice,” as an ingredient in its pomegranate-flavored yogurt. The Food and Drug Administration has repeatedly warned companies not to use the term because it is “false and misleading,” according to the suit.
“If you’re going to put sugar in your yogurt, why not just say it’s sugar?” said Pierce Gore, a lawyer affiliated with Mr. Barrett’s group.
Food companies dispute the accusations, defending their packaging and marketing. Nicki Briggs, a spokeswoman for Chobani, said the lawsuit was “frivolous” and “without merit.”
Even so, such cases are raising concerns within the industry.
At a recent food and beverage conference attended by more than 100 lawyers, Madeleine M. McDonough, a lawyer at Shook, Hardy & Bacon who is co-chairwoman of the agribusiness and food safety practice, warned in a session on fraud litigation that it was imperative for companies to comply with federal regulation. “Otherwise, we are dead in the water,” she said, according to two lawyers who attended the event, including J. Price Coleman, who is working with Mr. Barrett’s group.
Don't really care about what their motivation is. They could be the world's most cynical ambulance-chasers, as far as I care. If they can use the threat of litigation to force these garbage producers to clean up their act and stop misleading consumers with "healthy" labels on cans of high-fructose sewer sludge, their works will have been well worth the effort and yielded a positive public outcome. Of course, you'd like to think that an oversight agency like the FDA would take the responsibility for the jurisdictional heavy lifting here, but at this point, sad to say that's a pipe dream.
---Vitelius
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