Food Business News - June 5, 2012 - 16

Judge upholds F.T.C. complaints on POM Wonderful claims
WASHINGTON – D. Michael Chappell, a chief administrative law judge, on May 21 upheld a Federal Trade Commission complaint that certain POM Wonderful advertisements made deceptive claims. The F.T.C. also sought a Food and Drug Administration pre-approval requirement for future POM Wonderful claims, but the judge denied it. The judge ruled that POM Wonderful, L.L.C., its sister corporation Roll Global, L.L.C. and principals Stewart Resnick, Lynda Resnick and Matthew Tupper violated federal law by making deceptive claims in some advertisements for POM Wonderful 100% pomegranate juice and POMx supplements. The claims said the products would treat, prevent or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction. According to the judge’s decision, evidence demonstrated reasonable consumers would interpret the advertisements as claiming that drinking 8 oz of POM juice daily, taking one POMx pill daily and/or taking 1 teaspoon of POMx liquid daily treats, prevents or reduces the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer and/ or erectile dysfunction, and is proven clinically to do so. However, testimony demonstrated insufﬁcient scientiﬁc evidence exists to support the claims. The F.T.C. also wanted to prohibit POM from making any claim that any POM product “is effective in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of any disease, including, but not limited to, any representation that the product will treat, prevent or reduce the risk of” heart disease, prostate cancer or erectile dysfunction unless the claim received prior approval from the F.D.A. The judge said he found the pre-approval requirement overreaching. He instead required POM to adhere to the standard of competent and reliable scientiﬁc evidence by requiring the company to possess evidence to substantiate disease claims and more generalized claims about the health beneﬁts, performance and efﬁcacy of their products. POM Wonderful said the judge’s ruling gives the company a right to share scientiﬁcally validated information about the health beneﬁts of its products with consumers. “Through its lawsuit against POM, the F.T.C. tried to create a new, stricter industry standard, similar to that required for pharmaceuticals, for marketing the health beneﬁts inherent in safe food and natural food-based products,” said Craig Cooper, chief legal ofﬁcer for POM Wonderful, L.L.C. “They failed. While we are still analyzing the ruling, it is clear that we will be able to continue to promote the health beneﬁts of our safe food products without having our advertisements, marketing or public relations efforts pre-approved by the F.D.A. and without having to rely on double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled studies, the standard required for pharmaceuticals. We consider this not only to be a huge win for us, but for the natural food products industry.” Roll Global, POM Wonderful’s sister company, said it disagreed with the judge’s ruling that some of the advertisements were misleading, but the company will make appropriate adjustments if necessary. POM Wonderful has said that since 1996 it has invested more than $35 million to support scientiﬁc research on its pomegranate products at 44 universities and scientiﬁc centers. More than 70 studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals. The judge’s decision is subject to review by the F.T.C. on its own motion or at the request of any party. The judge’s decision will become the decision of the F.T.C. 30 days after it is served upon the parties, unless a party ﬁles a notice of appeal. The F.T.C. originally ﬁled its complaint against POM Wonderful advertisements in September 2010. The advertisements appeared in national publications, Internet sites, billboards, newsletters and tags attached to products. The complaint said many of the company’s scientiﬁc studies failed to show beneﬁts from using POM products for treating or preventing heart disease; the study relied upon for prostate cancer claims was neither blinded nor controlled; and the study relied upon for erectile dysfunction claims failed to show POM juice was any more effective than a placebo. FBN

U.S.D.A. improving meat, poultry and egg labeling process
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has introduced an Internet-based label approval system for the review of meat, poultry and egg product labels. The Label Submission Approval

System will make it possible for food manufacturers to submit label applications electronically, will ﬂag application submission errors that may delay the approval process, and will allow users to track the progress of their submission. “This new system will expedite and simplify the review process for meat, poultry and egg product labels,” said Elisabeth Hagen, under secretary for food safety. “Reducing the review times for labels will enhance the agency’s ability to ensure that accurate information is applied to product labels and reaches consumers quickly.” The F.S.I.S. reviews labels on the products it regulates to ensure they are truthful. The L.S.A.S. will reduce the time and costs incurred by both the industry and the agency. Until the launch of L.S.A.S., companies mailed or hand delivered paper applications to the agency, and the F.S.I.S. reviewed and corrected them before returning them in hard copy. The F.S.I.S. receives 150 to 200 label submissions daily, and it may take more than three weeks for a label to be reviewed. The Internetbased system will make approved or corrected labels immediately available to companies, saving time and mailing costs. The system also will allow companies to store labels and make changes electronically, which removes the need to print and re-submit modiﬁed labels for review to the F.S.I.S. each time a change is made. FBN

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June 5, 2012

Food Business News - June 5, 2012

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