Questioning Claims of ‘Functional’ Foods

A growing array of so-called “functional” foods now packs herbal ingredients that promise to do such things as fight stress and improve intelligence. From “memory snacks” to “immune fruit juice” that claim to jolt the immune system into action, these products sound not only too good to be true, but often plain silly.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based consumer watchdog group, recently attacked them as dangerous. The Center for Science filed a petition with the Food and Drug Administration asking the agency to halt sales of 75 functional foods that contain herbal ingredients and blur the lines between dietary supplements and food.

In its 158-page petition, the Center for Science pointed to such well-known brands as Odwalla juices, Snapple and Arizona teas, Fresh Samantha and Golden Temple Cereals containing added herbal ingredients that are not “generally recognized as safe” by the FDA nor are approved as food additives. Also cited were products that make unlawful claims on their labels and are thus considered “adulterated and/or misbranded under the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act,” the consumer group said. The Center for Science asked the FDA to take “appropriate enforcement action” to ensure that these products are no longer marketed.

“Many functional foods make dishonest and sometimes outright ridiculous labeling claims,” said Bruce Silverglade, the Center for Science’s director of legal affairs. Among those cited were Snapple Ginseng Tea; New Morning GingkOs cereal with gingko biloba to promote “sharp thinking”; Robert’s American Gourmet Echinacea Shells, which are billed as “an effective antibiotic”; and R.W. Knudsen’s Simply Nutritious Visionade, which is said to “promote healthy eyes” and “protect against retinal degeneration.” The Center for Science also targeted tortilla chips and green tea with St. John’s wort, and corn chips with kava kava.

During the last year, the federal agency has sent letters to functional-food companies warning that they were in violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and federal regulations.

“We need to do more and be more active in this area,” said Joseph Levitt, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

That sentiment was echoed by Connecticut Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal, who announced last week that he is investigating functional foods, and by Varro Tyler, distinguished professor emeritus of pharmacognosy at Purdue University.

Not only is it difficult to control dosage of herbals contained in food, Tyler said, but it’s also easy for consumers to inadvertently overdose.

“Children in particular metabolize drugs quite differently than adults,” Tyler said. “They might pig out on a box of these corn chips [with herbals]. . . . It could be dangerous.”

Industry groups, however, were quick to underscore the safety and effectiveness of functional foods. They “are like dietary supplements in that they can provide substantial health benefits for the consumer, when properly formulated and truthfully promoted,” said Annette Dickinson, a vice president at the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a Washington-based trade group. But as Tyler countered, if functional foods contain herbal ingredients at such low dosages to cause no harm, then how can they be either beneficial or therapeutic?

For a full list of the foods cited in the Center for Science’s petition, visit https://www.cspinet.org.