The FDA has sent a warning letter to General Mills saying that unless they remove the unproven health claims made on boxes of Cheerios, they may force the cereal company to reclassify its product as a drug.
No, I am not making this up.
Now the only real question is whether the FDA is going to get Mocked to Death on Capitol Hill.
How can an agency which does so little on so much, claim it has time for this nonsense?
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9 comments:
Similar case with pet food some years ago...
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1370/is_n10_v24/ai_9246902/
Nice to know the FDA is on top of issues like this. I mean, it's not like we have any OTHER issues with our food-supply chain in this country, right?!
Gotta love our country! Only in America would our government allow the regulation of a cereal. Just wait til we're thrown in jail for practicing medicine without a license for giving our kids water to prevent dehydration ...
Mmmmm... I'm hungry. Think I'll have me a bowl of heart healthy cheerios... :)
~Teresa~
Unbelievable! Whats next!!
Why would this action be considered absurd, I think it is a smart move on the FDA's part. I am tired of companies taking advantage of consumers by hyping unproven claims, therefore, I say, "deliver or bow out."
Umbradelleupo - I am all for truth in advertising, but I am also for triage -- dealing with the biggest problems first. Cheerios may be overstating things on its box, but there is little question it is one of the healthiest cereals out there.
Also, the FDA is in such dire straights in terms of funds, mission and mismanagement, that it REALLY needs to be focused on the necessities and not the niceties. In short, safety first, overblown consumer claims second.
The Minnesota FDA office (where this notice comes from), for example, should be focusing on massive fraud at Medtronics, Guidant, and St. Jude right in Minneapolis and St. Paul. After that they can look at the hundreds of non-FDA drugs being sold in drug stores across those two cities -- drugs that have actually killed people as so many of them are cough and cold medicines sold to small children. I could go on for quite a time about places where the FDA should be taking action (how about inspection of drug manufacturing plants?), but just google FDA and "mismanagement" or "incompetence" and go from there to see the scope of the problem.
Patrick
When something like this happens it makes me realize how vulnerable we are to advertising. It seems like the general population should know enough about cholesterol and their health that a cereal should not have this kind of influence. It can be as simple as reading a couple of knowledgeable health sources and watching what you eat... though I guess Cheerios is misleading us all of a sudden.
Looks like Obama's nominee passed the investigations and is headed to the Senate for confirmation. Wonder if she has bacon and eggs for breakfast or Cheerios?
Speaking of what the Minneapolis office of the FDA *should* be looking at, today's news comes this little gen >>
"Medical devicemaker Medtronic has sent out a letter warning doctors that it found a higher rate of failure in its Kappa and Sigma brand pacemakers than it had originally predicted.
"The company is predicting that just over 1 percent of Kappa and just under 5 percent of Sigma pacemakers will fail over their remaining estimated lifetime. These failures are caused by separation of wires connecting the electronic circuit to pacemaker components such as the battery or connector, Medtronic said.
"The announcement could have broad implications, as about 21,300 implanted pacemakers made between November 2000 and November 2002 could be affected. This includes roughly 6,300 U.S. patients, the company said. Company officials are advising doctors to consider replacing the devices."
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