President Obama isn’t just rewriting rules regulating the environment and the financial markets — he is also going after the food industry.
Target and example No. 1: Cheerios.
“Based on claims made on your product’s label,” the FDA said in a letter to manufacturer General Mills, “we have determined (Cheerios) is promoted for conditions that cause it to be a drug because the product is intended for use in the prevention, mitigation and treatment of disease.”
If the government’s enforcement action against Cheerios were to hold up, the cereal would be pulled from grocery shelves and consumers would need a prescription to buy a box of those little oats.
That’s unlikely, but experts say the message is clear: There is a new sheriff in town and when it comes to false, misleading and exaggerated labeling, you had better clean up your act.
“It is showing us that there is a new era,” says dietician and a former advertising executive Ashley Koff. “They are saying, we are coming into town and we are going to show you what will and won’t be allowed, and we’re going to be going after every single claim, whether it’s on a package or in TV.”
Bruce Silverglade of the consumer advocacy group, Center for Science in the Public Interest, said it was a welcome and needed change.
“The Obama administration is reversing course, thank goodness, and enforcing the law,” he said. “Cheerios was the first target. We hope though the FDA under the Obama administration clamps down on misleading health claims by other food manufacturers as well.
“During the Bush administration the Food and Drug Administration essentially took a policy of non-enforcement and failed to stop what became increasingly exaggerated claims, first by small food companies and by larger and larger food manufacturers,” Silverglade told FOX News.
At issue are two claims made by Cheerios on their cereal box.
1. “Cheerios is clinically proven to reduce cholesterol 4 percent in 6 weeks.”
2. “Cheerios can help reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, by lowering the ‘bad’ cholesterol.”
Both General Mills and the FDA declined to comment — but issued statements saying the two sides were in negotiations over the claims that have helped make Cheerios America’s best-selling cereal, amounting to one of every 8 boxes of cereal sold in the U.S.
General Mills is a titan of the food business with an army of lawyers. If the FDA can make it back down, others will follow.
“If I were an industry member and I saw what happened with Cheerios, I would look at this example and say the FDA is going after General Mills,” said Koff. “If I’m a maker of a small product I better start to look at any study that I am basing my claims on and what I put on my packaging.”
Koff argued that the General Mills study was suspect, as the company paid for the research and two staff members helped author it. That is not the type of rigorous, double-blind, peer-reviewed science necessary to back up drug claims.
“What we are seeing today is a government that understands that the obesity problem in America and the disease that is everywhere in America is not solely a consumer responsibility nor is it solely a marketer responsibility,” said Koff, who agrees with the FDA action, but said there are many other more egregious cases on store shelves.
Consumers outside a Los Angeles grocery store were less supportive of a move some called “silly” and heavy-handed.
“No, Cheerios should not be regulated by the FDA, because this is not a drug.”
(Source: Fox News)
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12 Responses
I think Obama was forced to eat Cheerios when he was a kid, and was traumatized by it. Now he’s getting back at them.
USA Taxpayer money hard at work!
The issue pre-dates Obama, and in many ways pre-dates the current era. The law is very clear that one can’t make false claims in advertising.
The law is especially clear that one can’t make a claim of a product being medically significant without being able to prove those claims.
If you claim that your product will prevent heart attacks, you need to prove it. If General Mills doesn’t have scientific evidence for its claim, it should be prosecuted for fraud. There is no hiddush. The rule of “Caveat emptor” has never applied when the merchant makes a specific claim that turns out to be false.
And to #2 – well yes, taxpayer money should be used to prevent people from being ripped off by false claim (I bet a lot of people would have been happy if some taxpayer dollars had been used to stop Mr. Madoff from making his false claims).
sounds pretty rediculous, what’s next are we going to have to be doctors to prescribe our children to eat healthy foods, this sounds more like the PDA (Politicians on DRUGS Administration)then the FDA, I guess Obama is trying to take control of every GM :), and one more thing maybe we should set up an administration that would be a watchdog on politicians false, misleading and exaggerated advertisemants.
This is a very good thing. Thousands of people buy these cereals based on such claims. They should at least be verifiable.
It’s so silly to think I eat Cheerios because I’m gullible enough to believe their claims. I’ve been eating Cheerios for almost 50 years because it tastes good – as do others of General Mills’ cereals, it has plenty of fiber, and General Mills displays their hechsher prominently on their cereals, not like some other cereal manufacturers who are ashamed of their hechsheirim.
I think Mr. Obama should waste taxpayers’ dollars in more intelligent ways than this.
From one extreme to the other. Where is the reason? Cheerios is NOT a good form of whole grain oats to put a dent in what they claim. With the high fructose corn syrup, etc… On the other hand, it is a toasted oat cereal; nothing pharmaceutical about it. It’s all over folks. We are in the age of reaction without thought.
I tend to see his point… 2 year olds are extremely gullible. If you said that eating Cheerios could make you fly like a bird, I bet the boxes would be jumping off the shelves.
Are vegetables also going to need a prescription? They also claim to fight many diseases.
I have no problem with monitoring what they claim, but calling cheerios a drug is just too far.
Yes, the Cheerios issue is the most important thing for Slobama to consider right now; he shouldn’t be thinking about the rising unemployment, the businesses filing bankruptcy, the terrorism, the failing healthcare systens. Nope, it’s Cheerios, they cause all the problems. At least he’s not blaming Israel and the Jews this week.
I like #4’s comment… though, I think there’s something more serious going on here…GM, in this case-NOT General Motors rather-General Mills must have pissed off the BILDERBERG GROUP and are not complying with whatever THEY told GM to do. Don’t know who they are??…Google them, then you’ll know WHO truly runs the USA, who’s been picking all the Presidents, why we ARE UNABLE TO GET ANY INFO ON OBAMA, RE: WHERE HE WAS BORN, etc., who makes the stock-market crash & the oil prices rise & fall and completely control our lives & other countries! YOU will have the shock of your lives! I am not a conspiracy fanatic. THIS IS ALL FACT! READ THE FOLLOWING, re: the YouTube video on OBAMA, noted below:
[to the right of the video screen, it gives the username of the individual who posted the video; date posted & below that (more info)- CLICK on
“more info”!! Set aside, almost, 2hrs, to view this VERY IMPORTANT video, please… and pass this info to others!!
The Obama Deception HQ Full length version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw&feature=related
POSTED: March 12, 2009
VIEWED: 2,394,974+
TIME: 1:53:40 hr/min/sec
[when I told friends to view this video in early May, there were only 1,800,000 viewers… look how many more have viewed this video in just over a month; 2,394,974+…that should say something! Ha’Mavin, Yavin!]
Shavu’a Tov!
May we be zoche to the Geulah Shelaimah b’Yamainu, bimhaira… and to greet Mashi’ach ben Dahvid, ACHSHAV! Ken Yehi Ratzon, Amen.
A Yehudiya b’Yerushalayim Ir HaKodesh
MAKE ALIYAH BEFORE THE WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY CLOSES..CHAS V’CHALILAH… SAVE YOUR LIVES… THE SAFEST PLACE DURING MILCHEMET GOG U’MEGOG IS in E”Y…says so in Kabbalah… and the Rabbanim & Gedolim know it too,…so why are they not telling this WONDERFUL INFORMATION to all the Jews in CHUTZ LA’ARETZ?? Hmm? Think about it!
We are commanded in the TORAH to live in E”Y.. it doesn’t say anything about whether the gov’t is secular or religious. There are hundreds of thousands of Chasidim and Chareidim living here..
so how do you explain that?
I agree wholeheartedly with bacci40 (comment #10). We all know that the seal of the Ribbono Shel Olam is EMES/TRUTH. Anything which smacks of falsity and/or deception is despised by Hashem. This applies to all areas of life, religious or secular.
In light of this, I find it incredible that any Jew would object to the FDA’s enforcement of “truth in advertising” laws which protect consumers against fraudulent claims. As bacci 40 said, they are (finally) doing their job, instead of turning their backs and allowing manufacturers to slip under the radar. The FDA is given a budget (by Congress, not Obama, all of you experts in Constitutional law) and in this case they are using it properly and effectively.
What we are witnessing here are thoughtless, knee-jerk, anti-Obama rantings. Listen, I don’t support many of Obama’s dangerous policies, especially those regarding Eretz Yisrael. But please, Jews are supposed to be intelligent and discerning critics — not mindless, ideologue rednecks. If and when this administration is actually doing something right — and truth in advertising is VERY right — then credit is due.