Claims for ingredients, and the "super foods" that contain them

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Created on 14, October, 2018

A snack food's labeling (including website) lists the "nutrient-packed" products' many "high-grade" ingredients, with multiple health and nutrient claims for each of them...

Nutrient and health claims are regulated. If content/quantity and other criteria are not met, they are not allowed. This product (all 4 flavors) makes a general nutrient content claim about being "nutrient-packed", but none of the products is even a good source (would need to contain at least 10% of Daily Value) of any beneficial nutrient (fiber, protein, specific vitamins and minerals) on the Nutrition Facts panel.

Additionally, the website lists multiple "benefits" of each ingredient (e.g., saying the snacks contain flax seeds, which "are known to protect women from breast cancer"), which are health claims that cannot be made for a food product, only a tested/approved drug. It also makes nutrient content claims that are only allowed for much larger amounts of a nutrient (e.g., there is nowhere near enough cinnamon in the products to provide "fiber, vitamin C," etc.). Unfortunately, this is a typical stretch of the truth in food labeling -- implying that just because an ingredient "contains" a nutrient, that it therefore provides a good (or better) source of it in the actual food product where it is often only a minor ingredient.