The Federal Trade Commission announced yesterday that Kellogg’s has admitted it falsely advertised the nutritional merits of kids breakfast cereal Kellogg’s Frosted Mini Wheats Bite Size Cereal. From the LA Times:

Kellogg’s national TV ads asserted that attentiveness improved nearly 20 percent in children who ate the cereal, compared with those who skipped breakfast, the FTC said. But the study the ads refer to found a benefit from eating Frosted Mini-Wheats in only half the children studied, and only 11 percent of the children’s attention improved 20 percent, according to the FTC.

“We tell consumers that they should deal with trusted national brands,” FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz said in a statement. “So it’s especially important that America’s leading companies are more attentive to the truthfulness of their ads and don’t exaggerate the results of tests or research.”

Read the article…

The PR folks at Kellogg’s quickly issued a statement citing the company’s “long history of responsible advertising.”

The maximum fine Kellogg’s can expect – $18,000. That’s sure to deter a company that last year of $13,000,000,000 (that’s 13 billion dollars).

What you need to know:

Health claims on food packaging are used to promote sales. In many cases, the actual science behind the claims is questionable. But in many borderline cases, the government can’t do anything about it because it will get sued on the grounds of limiting a Constitutional right of Freedom of Speech.

The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA), passed in 1990, requires all packaged foods to bear standard nutrition labels including ingredient lists and nutrition data. The food ingredient panel, serving sizes, and terms such as “low fat” and “light” were standardized. As a concession to food manufacturers, who lobbied heavily during the legislation process, the government authorized some health claims for foods as part of the new law.

The health claims are regulated by the FDA, but there is enough leeway within the regulations to allow manufacturers, relying on very flimsy research, to post preposterous claims such as Kellogg’s.

What to do at the supermarket:

Do not be fooled into believing health claim on a box of cereal, or any other product for that matter. Take them for what they are -  marketing speak.

The real data is in the nutrition panel where you can find a full list of ingredients along with nutritional information. And even then you need to watch out for sneaky tricks such as minuscule serving sizes that make the calorie count seem low, trans-fat labeled as zero when it’s not, etc…

The simplest solution is to choose minimally processed foods, with short understandable ingredient lists. Staying away from certain aisles in the supermarket (beverages, snacks, frozen dinners) can help.

And, if you have questions, to ask Fooducate. feel free to drop us a line : blog at fooducate dot com

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