Dumb And Dumber Choice

by tristero

Looks like the dumb food labeling initiative called Smart Choices is going to have to explain why it’s misleading consumers into thinking Froot Loops is a species of health food:

Raising the stakes in the battle over nutritional claims for packaged foods, the Connecticut attorney general said on Wednesday that he was investigating a national labeling campaign that promotes products like Froot Loops and mayonnaise as nutritionally smart choices.

In letters to Kellogg’s, General Mills and PepsiCo, the attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, said he was concerned that the program, called Smart Choices, was “overly simplistic, inaccurate and ultimately misleading.” The three companies are among several food giants that participate in the program.

In an interview Wednesday, Mr. Blumenthal said he had discussed his investigation with attorneys general from other states and several had expressed interest in joining his effort. In other prominent consumer protection cases, states have worked together to pursue companies or industries, including cigarette makers and subprime lenders, over charges of deceptive marketing.

“As a matter of common sense, these sugar-laden or fat-saturated products seem very questionable as so-called ‘Smart Choices’ nutritionally,” Mr. Blumenthal said. “We’re ratcheting up pressure for truthful answers to these issues.

Good luck with that. All he’s gonna learn is that to the food industry and its paid apologists, the sentence,

This incredibly lousy food product is not the worst of its sort on sale in the US.

is equivalent to

This food product is a Smart Choice if you care about your nutrition.

And legally, the food industry’s probably gonna fight like hell to defend their right to propagate grossly misleading double-talk and pretend it’s some kind of a free speech issue.

As if deliberately bamboozling millions of Americans into thinking they’re doing their kids some sort of big fucking favor serving them Froot Loops every morning is some kind of constitutional right.