FDA accused of scant monitoring of deceptive food labeling

The claim was made after the government agency issued a report to Congress on food manufacturers' compliance with food labeling regulations.

The report was conducted in response to concerns of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees surrounding the agency's efforts to stop inaccurate nutrition information and misleading health-related claims on food labels. In the document, the FDA conducted an overview of its accomplishments under the Food Labeling Compliance Program over the past two years.

But according to the consumer advocacy group CSPI, which this month sent a rebuttal of the FDA's report to appropriators in Congress, the FDA primarily focused on checking for the presence, not the accuracy of Nutrition Facts labels.

"The FDA's report to Congress demonstrates that the specific issues of concern to the Committee (…) have been the casualty of not only budget cuts, but a lack of commitment on the part of the Agency to fulfill its mission,"​ wrote CSPI legal director Bruce Silverglade to the Congressional committees responsible for FDA appropriations.

The FDA was unable to comment to FoodNavigator-USA.com in time for publication.

In its guidance to the FDA, Congress expressed its concern "that consumers may be faced with misleading information on caloric and nutrient content and health-related claims, and believes it is vital that consumers are able to trust the accuracy of food labels."​

It therefore tasked the agency to "address potentially misleading health and nutrition statements"​ and to report to the Committee on the "types of labeling violations discovered and actions taken in response to such violations. "​

The FDA earlier this year reported to Congress, stating that between October 1 2004 and December 6 2005, it had conducted 28,000 filed examinations of domestic and imported food labels. It also collected 543 samples for nutrient analysis and/or label review, as a result of which it issued 56 warning letters for misbranding violations.

The agency initiated around 300 voluntary recalls, primarily because the products contained undeclared ingredients. It also filed an injunction against one firm that "has a history of labeling its bakery products with false nutrition information".​

However, according to the CSPI, these measures were largely "non-responsive"​ to the Committee's requests, and revealed a "lack of commitment"​ from the FDA.

It claimed that field examinations do not attempt to ascertain whether nutrition information is accurate, or whether health-related statements are misleading.

"The fact that FDA inspectors eye-balled 28,000 labels to see if mandatory information was listed does little to stop misleading health-related claims that pervade the marketplace and that make it difficult for consumers to comply with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans,"​ it said.

And of the warning letters and recalls resulting from the samples taken for nutrition analysis, the CSPI rebuttal claimed that "most appear to involve safety concerns",​ such as the failure to include allergenic ingredients in the ingredients list.

The advocacy group stated that although this is an important issue, it was not relevant to the Committeee's requests.

And while the FDA issued 27 warning letters to distributors of cherry juice, dried cherries, and other fruit products containing cherries that made illegal disease prevention claims on company websites or food labels, the CSPI stated that "unfortunately, that type of crackdown was an aberration."​

"Misleading claims for everything from 'energy' drinks to ordinary bread masquerading as 'whole wheat' have proliferated and also deserve systematic enforcement efforts, but the Agency has taken no action,"​ it claimed.

"In light of the FDA's abdication of its traditional role, CSPI has sued, or threatened to sue, leading companies engaged in misleading labeling. In the last year, we obtained settlements from such companies as Tropicana, Quaker Oats, Frito-Lay, and Pinnacle Foods,"​ it said.

"If a small non-profit association can force settlements with major companies, then the FDA surely could find a couple of motivated lawyers among its more than 10,000 person staff to stop misleading labeling practices. Presently, at FDA's headquarters, only four people are assigned to identify and stop deceptive labeling, but they told CSPI that they only have time to respond to questions, not take the initiative. If the Agency had the will to act, it could find the necessary resources to enforce the law,"​ said the CSPI in its rebuttal.

The group urged the Congressional committees to direct the FDA to: conduct supermarket sweeps to stop misleading health-related claims; systematically test the accuracy of Nutrition Facts labels; give labeling enforcement higher priority during inspections of manufacturing facilities and distribution facilities; put a stop to marketplace fads before they get out of hand; and increase funding to the FDA division responsible for food labeling.