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11/3/2009 3:34 AM

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Observer-Reporter

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Joke writers and critics of President Ronald Reagan had a field day in 1981 when Reagan's Department of Agriculture attempted to reclassify ketchup as a vegetable in order to realize a $1 billion savings in school-lunch programs.

Nearly 30 years later, the same mentality seemed to infuse the Smart Choices food-labeling campaign sponsored by such heavy-hitting manufacturers as General Mills, Kraft Foods and Kellogg's. The program was meant to direct consumers to healthy choices in the grocery aisles, but ended up giving a thumbs-up to decidedly dubious choices like Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes.

The plug was voluntarily pulled on Smart Choices two weeks ago after the Food and Drug Administration said it would be looking into the multiplicity of labels, such as stars and numerical ratings, that deem certain foods healthy when that designation is often misleading at best.

Under the Smart Choices program, sodium-laden packaged meals or cereals containing sugar by the shovelful were able to get a passing grade as long as they contained extra fiber or were high in one of 20 nutrients. Michael Jacobson, of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, pointed out in The New York Times that Smart Choices "was paid for by industry and when industry put down its foot and said this is what we're doing, that was it, end of story."

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He also said Smart Choices, to put it mildly, graded on the curve: "You could start out with some sawdust, add calcium or Vitamin A and meet the criteria."

The FDA is looking at establishing across-the-board nutritional standards that would have to be met before anything on the shelves could get a label calling it healthy. When you consider the spiraling rates of obesity in this country, and the toll associated illnesses like diabetes and heart disease have on health-care costs and mortality rates, anything that can help consumers navigate the thicket of choices in the grocery store would be extremely helpful.

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2 comments

Not today : 11/3/2009
And you want these people handling your healthcare...Ok. Not today.

Not tomorrow

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FDA : 11/3/2009
is correcting problem created by business men making "shrewd business" decisions.

lies of omission

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