In response to the melamine/milk crisis China has been under huge international and national pressures to tighten up food safety legislation. It seems the government have taken note with foreign food manufacturers wishing to sell their products in China potentially forced to register with the country’s quarantine and inspection department every four years. The food safety law, which comes into effect on June 1, will oblige all foreign food exporters to register with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ). A draft implementation of the rule states...

Weight loss has been the focus of the FTC over the past few years but 08 and 09 have seen a significant step up in their activity. Within the last week we have seen 2 of the heavy weight formulations receive legal attention. In 2005 The FTC charged RTC Research & Development, LLC (and owners Tracy and Robert Chinery) with making false and unsubstantiated weight-loss claims for Xenadrine EFX. In 2006 the court found in favour of the FTC and under the terms of the settlement RTC to pay $8 million in consumer redress. However, it has taken until the 24th of April 09 to conclude this litigation...

European Dairy giant Groupe Danone is a true headliner at the moment, but not for the right reasons. In January 09 a class action suit was filed against Dannon Co Inc over proposed false advertising of the health benefits of Activia, Activia Lite, and DanActive. Despite what seems like a recent ‘out-of-court’ settlement with the associate plaintiffs’ it seems the science maybe under fire again as Danone withdraw a selection of health claim submissions to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Danone are a huge company with sales of over $4.8billion in the first quarter of 09,...

In March 09 Powerade® (Coca-Cola) launched “the complete sports drink” marketing campaign platforming their new product ‘ION4′as better than other sports drinks due to the inclusion of 2 additional electrolytes (0.5% of RDA - calcium and magnesium ). However, Powerade rival and market leader Gatorade® (PepsiCo) have filed a lawsuit against Powerade citing deceptive copy claims and billboard which show the Gatorade bottle and a tagline saying the drink is “incomplete” and missing ingredients found in Powerade. Gatorade has been incensed by several false claims from Powerade...

ProViva which has been on shelf for 14 years and in 2007 sold over 19 tonnes of product. However, following its launch of ProViva Female in 2008 to address iron deficiency could be under threat following EFSA’s recent negative ruling on Probi’s article 13(5) submission.* Probi AB (Part of Skane Dairy group) is a science company based in the university city of Lund, in southern Sweden and are the company behind the probiotic strain 299v. This particular strain provides the science behind one of the most successful probiotic products on the market with estimated sales of over €40 million in...

In one of the largest Pan European studies on consumer research the European Food Information Council (EFIC) have investigated the influence of food labeling on behavior and food choice.  The study surveyed 17,300 consumers in six European countries at home and in supermarkets. Initial results show that colour-coded nutrition labeling schemes have the tendency to be misleading. According to a recently released EUFIC study only about 18% of the European consumers check processed foods for nutrition information. Color coded nutrition information schemes such as the British traffic lights scheme...

Health claims are big business and according to new research by Mintel’s Global New Products Database ‘Natural’ is number 1 in terms of the most     frequently used claim on foods and beverages. However, is this widespread use really a benefit and what is natural? Mintel’s research found that 23% (1 in 4) food and drink launches carried the ‘natural’ claim, which is a 9% increase from 2007 figures. These claims have been integrate into products by use of wording such as ‘all natural’ however such claims have recently got dairy giant Muller into some trouble with the UK’s...