“Essential oils” have become very popular over the past few years, in part due to confusion that, in this context, “essential” does not mean “indispensable or necessary,” but rather refers to the means by which they are derived from plants. An essential oil company called Young Living had marketed its products as being “therapeutic-grade,” and […]
Category Archives: Food and Nutrition
FDA regulations set out different “serving sizes” that should be used on nutrition labels for different categories of food. In the “Fats and Oils” category, regulations have different sizes for “Butter, margarine, oil, shortening,” “Butter replacement, Powder,” and “Spray types.” Consumers sued the makers of “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! Spray” contending that the […]
In 2018, C.S., a seven-year old with various food allergies, attended a family friend’s birthday party. The friend’s parent had purchased a cupcake at Whole Foods that had been labeled “vegan.” But that cupcake was not actually vegan, C.S.’s parents now allege, and C.S. suffered an allergic reaction, which has now led to “a number […]
Gothamist reports: Restaurants and food delivery services will be barred from providing plastic knives, forks and condiment packets unless customers specifically request them, if a bill passed by the New York City Council Thursday goes into effect. The bill aims to curb single-use plastic waste that can’t be recycled. Approximately 1.1 million pounds of single-use […]
After taking his sweet time to do so, my old and good friend Rich Cleland retired from the FTC at the end of 2022. I first met Rich about 40 years ago, when he ran the great Iowa AG Tom Miller’s Consumer Protection Division and I was working for the late great Texas AG Jim […]
Read this December 15, 2022 article in Consumer Reports, titled “Lead and Cadmium Could Be in Your Dark Chocolate,” which found, based on product testing, “dangerous heavy metals in chocolate from Hershey’s, Theo, Trader Joe’s and other popular brands.” (The article also found that other products are safer.) Two class actions have been filed against Trader Joe’s […]
Here, in Forbes. Another consumer protection that probably doesn't protect consumers
Laurie J. Beyranevand of Vermont has written Regulating Inherently Subjective Food Labeling Claims, 37 Environmental Law 543 (2017). Here is the abstract: For many consumers, the modern food label serves as the sole source of information regarding any individual food product. While it may be considered informative in some respects, it is often enigmatic in others. The present […]
Simon Hedlin has written Calorie Overestimation Bias and Fast Food Products: The Effects of Calorie Labels on Perceived Healthiness and Intent to Purchase. Here's the abstract: In 2014, the United States Food and Drug Administration announced that chain restaurants with 20 or more locations would be required to put calorie labels on the menu. The […]
by Jeff Sovern Here (behind paywall). Excerpt: The sugar industry paid scientists in the 1960s to downplay the link between sugar and heart disease and promote saturated fat as the culprit instead, newly released historical documents show. The internal sugar industry documents, recently discovered by a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, and […]
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