A very interesting piece of news passed the wire late Friday, October 23. Smart Choices, which is a million-dollar food labeling program, was voluntarily halted on Friday thanks to a bit of mislabeling.
Earlier in the week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it was looking into Smart Choices' labeling practices. The FDA feels that Smart Choices (although the company wasn't named as a specific target by the government) may use misleading labels on some of the products it has deemed nutritionally sound.
The company hasn't been around long, as it launched in August. The goal of the label is to give shopper's nutritional guidance to consumers, thanks to a green check mark on the front of the packaging. Unfortunately, it seems like the program may be ineffective -- thanks to the Smart Choice label on sugary cereals and frozen treats. The company argues that the cereal was fortified with vitamins and the frozen chocolate treat is low in both calories and fat. Nevertheless, this program has been harshly judged in the past, and the FDA announcement along with the voluntary halt of the program certainly casts a pall on the entire program.
The problem here is that at first glance, Smart Choices is a good program. As the primary grocery shopper in our family (believe it), it is nice to look at a box and be able to easily tell if it is healthy or not. Of course now, we don't have to worry about looking for the little green check. Instead, we are left to wonder what went wrong with the program.
I imagine that conspiracy theorists out there could postulate that the program was corrupt from the beginning. I mean, how else could you explain healthy ratings for sugary cereal and for chocolate desserts? While the company has some legitimate arguments, I could see how some would think things might be a bit fishy -- I almost agree.
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