Earlier this Month, the FDA sent a Warning Letter to Nestle USA regarding three Juicy Juice products: Juicy Juice Brain Development Fruit Juice Beverage (Apple), Juicy Juice All-Natural 100% Juice Orange Tangerine, and Juicy Juice All-Natural 100% Juice Grape. Here’s why:

1. “No Sugar Added”. This statement appears on all 3 products, but is not allowed if the product is targeted at children under 2 years old. The Juicy Juice website additionally states “Naturally Lower in Sugar”, again, unallowed for products intended for children under 2 years old.

2. 100% What? Take a quick look at the product name: Juicy Juice All-Natural 100% Juice Orange Tangerine. Reads as if it is made solely from Oranges and Tangerines. WRONG! It is 100% juice but in fact, most of the juice is from apples. In finer print, once can read “Flavored juice blend from concentrate with other natural flavors & added ingredients“.  Tricky! According to the FDA,

The manner in which the latter statement is presented makes it less conspicuous and prominent than the other label statements and vignettes and therefore less likely to be read or understood by consumers at the time of purchase.

Nestlé confirmed the company had received the letter on the Juicy Juice products. “We are intending to fully cooperate with the FDA in bringing this matter to a conclusion,” a spokesperson said.

What you need to know:

In every regulated industry there’s a cat and mouse game between companies and regulators. No different is the food industry and its main regulator, the Food and Drug Administration. Companies are so eager to create a competitive advantage through marketing, that they stretch the truth, often times falling down a slippery slope to misleading claims.

Nestlé is no better than the rest. We wrote about Juicy Juice in the past. Its marketing tactics are such a pile of BS.

What’s with “Brain Development” you ask? Although DHA (an omega 3 fatty acid) may help with brain development, the evidence is still very shaky, and the downside of such a sugary drink far outweigh the brain benefits.

A half a cup serving (for toddlers) contains TWO AND A HALF TEASPOONS OF SUGAR! This is not a product that should be served regularly to children or toddlers.

What to do at the supermarket:

It appears that now we can’t even trust the NAME of a product to be accurate anymore. The best suggestion when shopping is to keep your eyes focused just on the ingredient list and nutrition facts panel. Regarding juice for children, and especially babies and toddlers – save yourself some money and a future of cavities and fighting with your kids – Serve only water from the day they start drinking.

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Fish are healthy for you right?

High in omega-3, plenty of protein, not to mention absolutely delicious when prepared right.

Unfortunately, not all is rosy in the octopus’s garden in the sea.

Due to industrial contamination of lakes, rivers, and oceans, the world fish population has been contaminated by mercury, a lethal poison especially dangerous to young children and pregnant women.

A European coalition of consumer groups is now pressing for mercury warning on labels of fish products:

A coalition of different environmental organizations, the Zero Mercury Working Group, claims that there are risks associated with eating fish due to its mercury content, and consumers need to be made aware of these through fish and seafood product labeling.

The group maintains that the proposed European Union regulation for labeling foodstuffs, currently being considered in the European parliament, should include advice for vulnerable groups about the mercury content of fish and seafood.

read more…

What you need to know:

For the past 15 years, pregnant women and young children have been advised by the US government to limit consumption of certain types of fish that have been shown to contain high quantities of mercury. These are usually large predator fish such as tuna and swordfish who accumulate the poison in their bodies over a time span of years before they are caught.

It will be interesting to see the outcome of the European food labeling discussions, and what elements our FDA and USDA would be interested in adopting.

Don’t hold your breath though. Just a few months ago the FDA urged the government to amend its advisory that women and children should limit how much fish they eat. The reason – the benefits of seafood outweigh the health risks and that most people should eat more fish, even if it contains mercury. Was there any lobbying on behalf of the fishing industry behind this decision? Naaaah…

What to do at the supermarket:

The bigger the fish, the more mercury it has deposited in its flesh. So stay away from shark meat, swordfish, king mackerel, and albacore tuna. Small fry, such as sardines and anchovies, are an excellent source of protein and omega-3, without the bonus toxins. This is because they live for a short period of time before being harvested, so their body does not have time to accumulate mercury.

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From the New York Times:

WEEKS after its own advisory board accused the Food and Drug Administration of failing to adequately consider research about the dangers of bisphenol-A, found in many plastic baby bottles, plastic food containers and metal can linings, the agency has agreed to reconsider the issue.

The F.D.A.’s draft risk assessment in August, finding the chemical safe as it is now used, stood out against a tide of recent scientific opinion.

Read article…

What you need to know:

BPA is a chemical compound used as a building block of several polymers and polycarbonates that in turn are found in plastic bottles and cans. Which means all of us are exposed to tiny amounts, whether drinking canned juice, milk from a baby-bottle, or any other product sold in a plastic container.

Toxicity questions have been around for decades, raising safety issue, especially for babies. Potemtial problems include hyperactivity, learning disabilities, brain damage, and immune deficiencies.

In August, the FDA deemed BPA safe, based on studies that were funded by…you guessed it, industry interests. Now the FDA will have to take into account several more studies, that may have been sidelined.

What to do at the supermarket:

It’s virtually impossible to avoid BPA if you are buying canned food. Parents of nursing infants do have options and may purchase bottles that are laebled BPA free.

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