Crackdown on health-benefit claims pits vendors against FDA
TRAVERSE CITY - Olivene Robbins swears that drinking a glass of concentrated tart cherry juice every day cured her painful gout."It's almost like a miracle to me," the 69-year-old resident of Hickory, N.C., said.
The cherry industry is seeking new customers by marketing the fruit as a health food, trumpeting testimonials from satisfied buyers and research showing cherries contain helpful antioxidants.
But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned 29 companies selling cherry products such as juice concentrate and dried cherries to stop making unproven claims that they treat or prevent disease.
Since receiving FDA letters last fall, some vendors have removed - or at least reworded - health benefit statements on product labels, Web sites and brochures. But others still make the connection, and an industry group is continuing a promotional campaign telling consumers that cherries are good for them.
"We've always tried to report the science, to stick with the facts, to report things as they are and not exaggerate," said Jane DePriest, marketing director for the Lansing-based Cherry Marketing Institute.
Because the institute doesn't sell anything, it isn't subject to the FDA warning. But some vendors are confused about what they can tell customers. They complain the government is picking on a small industry whose products are harmless at worst, and at best might ward off debilitating ailments.
"Nobody ever claimed they had adverse side effects from eating cherries, which is more than you can say for a lot of drugs," said Steve de Tar, president of Brownwood Acres Foods in Eastport, from which Robbins orders juice concentrate.
Once a roadside farm market in northern Michigan orchard country, de Tar's business boomed so dramatically after beginning Internet juice sales that it made Inc. magazine's 2004 list of the nation's 500 fastest growing privately held companies.
The cherry industry isn't alone on the antioxidant bandwagon. Foods as varied as blueberries, green tea and chocolate have been touted as antioxidant-rich as producers cash in on Americans' surging health consciousness.
Antioxidants are believed to neutralize free radicals - chemicals that damage cells in the body and are implicated in degenerative disorders such as cancer and Alzheimer's disease.
"We have the government telling people to eat more fruits and vegetables, and we have the U.S. Department of Agriculture funding some of these fruit studies, and now we have another arm of the federal government that says you can't use the research," said Bob Underwood, whose Traverse City company sells capsules made with cherry and blueberry paste.
The FDA began investigating cherry products after its Detroit office received a complaint, said Jennifer Thomas, consumer safety officer with the agency's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
The agency told the 29 companies that by claiming their products could prevent, treat or cure disease, they were in effect calling them drugs - a violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
New drugs require FDA approval and testing to confirm safety and effectiveness.
"If somebody is using a product that is unproven for health benefits, they may be foregoing other treatments that they would need," Thomas said. "We're concerned that consumers not get the wrong message and use products that may not have the benefits they believe they would have."
The FDA cited one vendor's Web site that proclaimed: "Breakthrough News: Cherries Prevent Cancer!"
Cherries, it said, "are packed with perillyl alcohol - a natural chemical that not only flushes cancer-causing substances out of the body, but also helps stunt the growth of cancerous cells." The site also said cherries contain anthocyanins, "anti-inflammatory pain relievers 10 times stronger than aspirin or ibuprofen."
Other companies made similar claims, some using more cautious wording such as "may prevent."
The FDA is checking whether the 29 companies are complying with the warning, Thomas said. If they refuse, the agency could seek a court order or seize their products.
Vendors say their claims are backed by research at several universities, including Michigan State. Studies funded partly by the industry and USDA detected antioxidants in cherries, including anthocyanins