FUNCTIONAL FOOD CLAIMS DRAW FIRE

ALISON MAXWELL

WASHINGTON (FNS) -- The Center for Science in the Public Interest here last week asked the Food and Drug Administration to tighten its controls over the marketing of "functional-food" products.

The CSPI, a nonprofit health-advocacy group, which also released a report on the subject, raised questions about the growing food category, a stance which in turn drew criticism from the food industry.

In a letter to FDA Commissioner Jane Henney, the CSPI charged that "functional foods hold much promise, but, without effective regulation, may merely become the snake oil of the next century.

"The FDA is failing to protect the public from numerous questionable ingredients and misleading claims in the estimated $15-billion-a-year functional-foods market," wrote Bruce Silverglade, CSPI director of legal affairs, in the letter. "Too often companies are merely trying to cash in on the demand for alternative health remedies."

The Grocery Manufacturers of America here called the CSPI's campaign "unnecessary." "CSPI should stop its unjust and reckless rhetoric against innovative food companies who are responsibly providing healthy, good-tasting products consumers want to buy," said Stacey Zawel, GMA vice president of scientific and regulatory policy. "Brand name food companies spend millions of dollars every year to assure that their products meet rigorous, science-based standards for quality, safety and substantiation of claims."

Functional foods are made with herbal medicines, amino acids, plant extracts and other unconventional ingredients. Food manufacturers typically tout the ingredients as having a health-enhancing effect on the body. The CSPI says that current FDA regulations prohibit the use of untested ingredients and unapproved health claims, but that companies get around those rules by taking advantage of regulatory loopholes. Examples of functional foods are chewing gum that claims to improve concentration, a snack bar that says it manages vascular disease and ketchup that boasts its cancer-fighting agents.

Accompanying the CSPI letter was a report, "Functional Foods: Public Health Boon or 21st Century Quackery," that provided examples of what it called misleading functional foods. Some functional foods, according to the report, may contain insignificant amounts of the promoted ingredient, while others contain too much fat or sugar. For example, Kellogg's Ensemble Carrot Cake labels state that the product contains psyllium, "a natural soluble fiber that actively works to promote health." The cake, however, contains too much fat to qualify for an FDA-approved heart-disease prevention claim, so the company claims it can "promote heart health," the report said.

The CSPI report cited instances in which conventional foods are misleadingly marketed as "functional foods" on the basis of the effect of a naturally occurring ingredient. For example, Heinz advertises that lycopene in ketchup "may help reduce the risk of prostate and cervical cancer." According to the report, the company only makes the claim in ads and not on labels because the Federal Trade Commission, which regulates advertising, employs weaker substantiation standards than the FDA.

Heinz and Kellogg did not return calls seeking comment.

The CSPI letter and report urge the FDA to:

Require that functional ingredients be proven safe prior to marketing.

Require claims to be approved by the agency or be based on scientific consensus.

Issue rules that require labels to disclose how much of a functional ingredient a serving of the food contains, how much people should consume and warning information.

Prevent companies from selling "functional foods" as dietary supplements or "medical foods" in order to escape FDA regulation.

Work with the FTC to develop a consistent policy for claims in advertising and labeling.