Eyes on ‘Functional Foods'
Products With Supplements May Be Regulated
By Lauran Neergaard
The Associated Press
W A S H I N G T O N, March 25 — A split-pea soup boasts that it contains the antidepressant herb St. John's wort to “give your mood a natural lift.” A carrot cake touts heart-healthy fiber psyllium.
Such foods are drawing the ire of consumer advocates who say a bowl of soup will not treat clinical depression and fiber cannot counter the cake's fat to make it heart-healthy.
The advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest urged the government today to tighten controls over these “functional foods,” which add drug-like ingredients to boost foods' healthfulness.
While some functional foods do work, too many companies tout unproven ingredients or make misleading health claims, the consumer group said in a report. The result is a mishmash of products confusing to consumers — and one that could backfire by casting doubt on legitimate healing foods, it contended.
21st Century ‘Snake Oil'
“While functional foods hold much promise, without effective regulation, they may merely become the snake oil of the next century,” CSPI director Michael Jacobson wrote to the Food and Drug Administration commissioner, Jane Henney.
Functional foods are not a new concept. One of the first was calcium-fortified orange juice, which gives people who hate milk just as much bone-healthy calcium per glass as milk. U.S. breakfast cereals are fortified with vitamins and minerals; some provide an entire day's supply in one bowl.
Functional foods have become a booming industry, estimated to bring in $15 billion this year. Yet the FDA does not have any policy to say just what foods qualify, FDA food chief Joseph Levitt acknowledged.
Developing a policy is a top priority that FDA hopes to complete this year, Levitt said. This is “an area of enormous public interest” that will require setting boundaries, he said.
Food companies were indignant at CSPI's charges.
But They Aren't All Bad
The fact that Kellogg's carrot cake contains fat “does not negate the beneficial properties” of the psyllium fiber added to it, said Gene Grabowski of the Grocery Manufacturers of America, which represents brand-name manufacturers of functional foods. “These are foods that have met scientific tests of safety and nutrition, and we think it's irresponsible to say they're bad.”
The Hain Food Group's line of “Kitchen Prescription” soups contain such ingredients as St. John's wort. The soups do not claim to “offer therapeutic benefits,” said Vice President Ellen Deutsch. But “there is a consumer group that desires to consume St. John's wort. We are making it available in a good-tasting product.”
Two Issues at Heart
The functional-food confusion centers on two issues:
What health claims companies can make. The FDA strictly limits which ingredients have enough scientific proof to claim they help prevent or treat disease — and only allows such a claim in a food that is healthy overall. But the law allows more vague health claims of how a food supports bodily “structure or function.” Some companies interpret that to mean they can say a food “promotes a healthy heart” without showing proof, as long as they do not say it actually “reduces the risk of heart disease.”
How to regulate foods with dietary supplements like herbs or amino acids added to them. The FDA must declare new foods safe before Americans buy them, but Congress lets dietary supplements sell without any FDA approval that they are safe or effective.
The FDA did set one boundary on functional foods in December, ordering McNeil Pharmaceuticals to prove that its much-hyped Benecol cholesterol-lowering margarine is safe before it begins selling.
McNeil had argued that Benecol was not a new food, but just a dietary supplement — it is made from an ingredient in trees — and thus did not require FDA approval.
The FDA cited a law that says dietary supplements cannot masquerade as foods — Benecol looks and tastes like regular margarine and will be sold in supermarkets next to the butter.
McNeil now is awaiting Benecol's approval.
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