Smart Choices Program suspends operations
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
Packaged-foods marketers including Kraft Foods, General Mills, Kellogg and Unilever will phase out the Smart Choices label, which FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, legislators and litigators recently complained misleads consumers to believe unhealthy foods are nutritious. The Smart Choices Program postponed operation Oct. 23 and Smart Choices Chair Mike Hughes said in a release the program welcomes FDA's interest in developing standard front-of-label and shelf-label criteria, as indicated by Hamburg (1"The Tan Sheet" Oct. 26, 2009). Hughes added the program will work with Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who is investigating the program because it deems "mayonnaise, sugar-laden cereals and other nutritiously suspect foods 'Smart Choices.'