If Froot Loops Are a Smart Choice, I'll Eat My Hat

Good news for those of us who think Froot Loops shouldn’t be advertised as health food. The Smart Choices labeling scheme, which has had many reasonable people gaping in disbelief with its decision to slap a "smart choices" label on high-sugar and high-fat processed foods, is putting its program on hold, MSNBC reported.

The decision came after the FDA announced it would investigate the program for making false nutritional claims. The FDA acted after activists objected to the blatant nutri-washing campaign and Representative Rosa L. DeLauro, Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agricultural Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, requested that the FDA look into it.

The nine major food industry players involved in the initiative, including Kellogg Co., Kraft Foods and General Mills, will now wait to see how the FDA rules before promoting the program any further.

One suspects, however, that the FDA will be loathe to give a thumbs-up to a pseudo-science marketing campaign that uses the logic "at least it isn’t a Cinnabon" to justify calling Corn Pops a wise eating decision and that allows the Froot Loops box, proudly sporting a deliberate misspelling, to be labeled "smart."

Photo courtesy of yo te prefiero fuera de foco, via Flickr