Think you’re eating fruit? Think again – National Consumers League

/in /by

NCL is calling on the feds to investigate a new food ingredient that’s being sold to food manufacturers as a “sweetened dried cranberry” but actually contains more sugar than fruit and is made from cranberry skins – not whole cranberries.

NCL has alerted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to misleading labeling on a new food product, Ocean Spray’s “Choice.” Because this product is being sold as a “sweetened dried cranberry” for use in breakfast cereals, cereal bars, baked goods, and trail mixes, it has the potential to result in the mislabeling of many other food products on the market.  

“Sweetened dried cranberries” (SDCs) have become the common or usual name for a popular ingredient in a variety of foods, capitalizing on the healthy image of cranberries and cranberry juice. According to our information, SDCs are the fastest-growing segment of the cranberry market. SDCs traditionally consist of dried cranberries infused with sugar and coated with a small amount of sunflower oil. Facing growing demand for SDCs and a limited supply of fruit, Ocean Spray Cranberries Ingredient Technology Group recently introduced the “Choice” product as a less expensive alternative to SDCs. Ocean Spray represents “Choice” as an SDC that merely adds citric acid for flavor and elderberry juice concentrate for color. Marketing materials tout “Choice” as a low-cost SDC with the same taste, texture, appearance, and health benefits as other SDCs. For example, one Ocean Spray press release states that “Choice contains the health benefits associated with cranberry, with high levels of bacteria-repelling proanthocyanidins and antioxidants, as well as the anti-inflammatory flavonoid quercetin.”  

Laboratory analyses by Krueger Food Laboratories, commissioned by NCL, on November 4, 2009, found that “Choice” is really little more than cranberry skin infused with sugar syrup. The lab report, a copy of which is attached to this letter, describes analytical results for two separate production lots of “Choice” and one lot of Ocean Spray “Craisins,” the latter being Ocean Spray’s standard SDC product. The test results indicate that “Choice” consists mainly of sugar. The analysis found that the soluble solids in “Choice” “consist primarily of inverted beet sugar and citric acid” and are “less than those consistent with the use of whole cranberries.” The organic acids content (except for citric acid), potassium content, and anthocyanin content are significantly lower than those for SDCs. The cranberry content is so small that Ocean Spray must add color in the form of elderberry juice concentrate and acidity in the form of citric acid to simulate the color and acidity of cranberries. These findings are consistent with Ocean Spray claims that they use 50 percent fewer cranberries to make “Choice” than they do for their regular SDC product (See Ocean Spray press release entitled “ITG Provides Customers With Choice,” dated October 8, 2008.)

NCL believes that Ocean Spray’s “Choice” product is misbranded. First, given the small cranberry content and different nutrient profile of “Choice,” we do not believe that “sweetened dried cranberries” is an appropriate common or usual name for this product. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations require that the common or usual name of a food “shall accurately identify or describe, in as simple and direct terms as possible, the basic nature of the food or its characterizing properties or ingredients… and may not be confusingly similar to the name of any other food that is not reasonably encompassed within the same name.” 21 C.F.R. § 102.5(a). A common or usual name may be established by common usage. 21 C.F.R. § 102.5(d). NCL believes that the term “sweetened dried cranberry” has become established by common usage as the name for a food product consisting mainly of cranberries infused with sugar and dried to a specific moisture content. Ocean Spray’s “Choice” product, because of its minimal cranberry content and use of other ingredients to simulate the flavor and color of cranberries, should not be named “sweetened dried cranberries.” 

We question whether the word “cranberries” should be allowed at all in the name of this product. When an ingredient is highlighted as a characterizing ingredient in a product name, FDA generally requires that the product contain a sufficient amount of that ingredient to characterize the food. For example, “honey bread” and “honey buns” must contain at least 8 percent honey. FDA, Compliance Policy Guides § 505.350. See also FDA Warning Letter CHI- 24-95 (“made with real fruit” claim is false and misleading “for a product made primarily with corn syrup and sucrose… and containing natural and artificial colors”). If the word “cranberries” is allowed to appear in the product name, NCL recommends that “Choice” be required to use a common or usual name that accurately describes the product and makes clear that the product does not contain whole berries (e.g., “sweetened dried cranberry skins with other flavors and colors” or “flavored cranberry skins”).   

Second, we understand that “Choice” labels include an ingredients declaration that lists cranberries as the predominant ingredient. According to our lab analyses, this is false and should be corrected to list sugar as the predominant ingredient. All food labels are required to list ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight. 21 C.F.R. 101.4(a)(1).  

Third, we question the validity of Ocean Spray labeling and advertising claims that “Choice” delivers the same health benefits as “sweetened dried cranberries” and other cranberry products, given the fact that most, if not all, of the cranberry content has been removed from “Choice.” Aside from lower levels of anthocyanins and potassium, our tests found that “Choice” contains only about one-fifth the amount of quinic acid as Ocean Spray’s Craisins. NCL requests that FDA investigate whether the claims of health benefits for “Choice” are false or misleading.  

NCL is also concerned about the many food products that are currently made with “Choice” or will be in the future. Muffins, cereals, and trail mixes should not be able to pass off flavored cranberry skins as if they were sweetened dried cranberries. To avoid misleading consumers, these products should be required to list “Choice” by its appropriate common or usual name in their ingredients declarations, and to declare the component ingredients in “Choice” in their order of predominance. FDA regulations require nothing less.   

NCL urges FDA to make clear to the food industry that it will not accept ersatz foods and ingredients being passed off to consumers as the real thing, especially where the food in question is marketed for its health benefits. We therefore request that FDA investigate Ocean Spray “Choice” and take appropriate enforcement action.

Credit Card Industry Profiting from Consumer Missteps – National Consumers League

/in /by

By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Last week’s public television’s Frontline featured “The Card Game,” an investigation of the credit card industry and what’s ahead for consumers and banks.

Frontline’s conclusions aren’t good news for consumers: Despite passage of the May 2009 Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act (“The Credit CARD Act”), the days of tricks and traps by banks and other financial institutions are far from over.

I ran headlong into the world this past week when I intervened with Capital One Bank on behalf of a family friend who was panicking over a credit card problem. The friend — I’ll  call her Marti — earns just over minimum wage in each of the two jobs she holds. She called me because she knows I do consumer work for a living. Anyway, Marti couldn’t figure out why her credit card balance kept growing when she hadn’t used the card since last year. Marti is conscientious. Each month since April 2008 she has faithfully paid the minimum amount that appeared in the box on her bill — yet her balance grew and grew.

Frankly, I couldn’t figure out the bill either. If she pay the minimum balance, it may take a long time to pay off the balance, but the balance shouldn’t grow. Or so I thought. Welcome to the world of “over credit limit” charges. Marti’s card carried a $750 limit. In her last transaction — April 2008 — she had gone $8 and change over her credit limit. That $8 triggered a $39 “over-limit” charge, accompanied by a finance charges. So, while Marti paid the minimum each month, her balance remained above the “over credit limit” triggering multiple $39-charges since last April.

I only learned this by calling Capital One. Indeed, Marti’s balance had reached $1,080 without her charging a dime on the card since last year. That’s $330 purely in finance charges — set at 22% — and over-limit fees. After much cajoling, the supervisor with whom I spoke agreed to forgive three of the $39 charges. She said she couldn’t do any more.

This story reinforced what the Frontline reporters found: that credit card companies trap consumers — particularly low income consumers — in a never-ending spiral of fees and charges that grow larger by the month. Even consumers like Marti, who pay something each month, find themselves sinking deeper and deeper into debt.

Marti is, I suppose, one of the lucky ones. She has someone to advocate for her. Still, there’s something I don’t understand: What happened to a bank earning profits the old-fashioned way, by making a reasonable profit by lending consumers money at reasonable interest charges. Say 6 or 7 percent?

But that’s not how banks make their money these days. And Capitol One’s practices aren’t unique. In 2007, the banking industry earned about $29 billion from overdraft fees, according to Celent, a consulting firm for the banking industry. That is more than the $28 billion consumers spent on major appliances and the $14 billion they spent on books.

If you think about it, banks today make much of their income from things their customers do wrong. Like unknowingly going over a credit limit, or being a few days late paying their bills. The new CARD bill will curb some of these practices, but undoubtedly the banks will find new tricks and traps. That doesn’t sound like a good customer relations strategy to me.

Teen death highlights danger of machinery work – National Consumers League

/in /by

A few days before Thanksgiving in a small Virginia town called Poquoson, Frank Gornik, 14, was removing storm debris for his uncle’s company. The boy, a freshman in high school, fed branches into a wood chipper. He used a shovel to help force the branches and that shovel was grabbed by the machine and—in an instant—swallowed the boy and killed him.

Each year, 35-40 teens die similarly unimaginable deaths in workplace accidents—tractor rollovers, work-related car accidents, drownings in grain silos. Here at the National Consumers League, we try to monitor these deaths to prevent them from occurring. A decade ago, the number of working teens who died on the job was about double what it is today. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, federal and state departments of labor, nonprofit organizations and employers worked together to help bring the number of deaths down, but we must keep working to reduce that number even further.

Sadly, although it was a freak accident, Gornik’s death was preventable. The boy was much too young to work with such deadly equipment. Over the years, state and federal officials have realized that teens lack the judgment and experience to operate some hazardous machinery and require workers to be 18 to use them (although some exemptions are made for agriculture). Because of their ability to inflict massive and instantaneous damage, wood chippers are among the proscribed machines. Under the Bush administration, the U.S. Department of Labor refused to enact NIOSH-recommended changes to the “hazardous orders” regulations that would have improved teen worker safety protections. It is our understanding that under Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis’ leadership, the department is working to update those regulations and close some current exemptions that allow teens to perform dangerous work.

Although Gornik had his share of sadness— according to local newspaper reports, he lost both parents in a two-year stretch between 2005 and 2007—he was remembered by many fellow students for his ready smile and helpfulness. He was a very popular student who played sports and made the honor roll, and the Poquoson community continues to grieve his loss.

It’s hard to make any sense of an unspeakable tragedy like this, but the lessons learned from the accident that took Frank Gornik’s life might prevent similar deaths. Each year, NCL publishes a report—“The Five Worst Teen Jobs”—about dangerous job for teens, hoping that parents, employers, and young workers will carefully consider which jobs they take and what tasks they perform at work. It’s vital that employers learn state and federal child labor and safety laws, and it’s vital that young workers think about their own safety and know that they are able to say “no” to any job task that is dangerous or against the law.