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Connecticut AG Investigating Smart Choice Food Labels

Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal is investigating the Smart Choices labeling campaign begun over the summer by several big food companies, William Newman reports, to see to if it violates state statutes that bar misleading or false product claims. In a letter to Kellogg, General Mills and PepsiCo, he calls the program "overly simplistic, inaccurate and ultimately misleading."

The investigation is the latest thunderclap in a gathering storm about the program, which Smart Choices executives say "was developed during an open and lengthy collaborative process that included some of the most experienced and accomplished professionals in nutrition science."

Writing in the Houston Chronicle earlier this week, NYU professor and author Marion Nestle says, "I would dismiss the Smart Choices program as just another food industry marketing ploy except for the involvement of health professionals in its development." She goes on to point out that several of the organizations have financial ties to the food industry, however, and questions their integrity. An extended version of Nestle's criticisms appeared in her San Francisco Chronicle column over the summer.

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The Los Angeles Times' Mary MacVean wrote a roundup of the controversy a couple of weeks ago. "Michael Hughes, vice president for science and public policy at the Keystone Center and a member of the Smart Choices board, said none of the critics had presented scientific evidence that the program's criteria were out of line with a nutritious diet," she points out.

Read the whole story at New York Times, Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times »

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