COUNTYWIDE : Health Products Firm Settles Suit

Great Earth International, which markets health products nationwide, has agreed to pay nearly $110,000 to settle a consumer-protection lawsuit alleging that it made unauthorized claims about the health benefits of its dietary supplements.

Under terms of a settlement approved Monday in Orange County Superior Court here, La Mirada-based Great Earth admitted no liability but agreed to pay $109,520 in costs and civil penalties, said its attorney, Jay Geller.

Great Earth also agreed to follow health and safety codes when advertising its products, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Wendy Brough.

The lawsuit was filed in July, 1987, when the state Department of Health Services found that Great Earth was making unauthorized claims about some of its dietary and nutritional products, Brough said.

In advertisements in 1985 and 1986, Great Earth boasted that its Nutrimmune benefited the immune system because it contained Interleukin-2, an experimental cancer drug, Brough said. But Nutrimmune did not contain Interleukin-2, she said. It was not available to the public.

Department of Health Services investigators seized the product from Great Earth warehouses, Brough said.

Great Earth claimed that its Rejuvacell combatted hair loss, high blood pressure and cholesterol and improved memory, sleep habits and sexual function, Brough said.

Another product purported to “soothe physical discomfort and mood disorders brought on” by pre-menstrual syndrome “in 60% to 80% of the cases” by regulating liver function, improving the circulation and removing excess water, Brough said. Great Earth also contended that its Vitamin E was an anti-clotting agent which made the heart a more efficient pump, she said.

Most of those products are still being sold, but without the disputed claims, Geller said.

Also agreeing to the settlement were Phoenix Laboratories, the manufacturing company that supplied the products, and Evergood Products, which owns Phoenix and Great Earth, Geller said. He noted that Evergood bought Great Earth in 1988, after the disputed advertising claims were made.

ConAgra, a corporate entity that once controlled Great Earth, remains a defendant in the lawsuit.