The FDA, sucralose, and “artificial flavors”
FDA,
I recently purchased a beverage produced by Neurobrands of California.
On the bottle, it prominently displays: “NO ARTIFICIAL COLORS OR FLAVORS.”
(In the ingredient list, “crystalline fructose” is listed, making me believe this was the only sweetener present.)
I purchased the drink and thought, “this tastes weird and very sweet for how many calories it contains.” Re-checking the ingredients, I discovered sucralose!
How is this allowable?
I consider “sweet” to be a flavor, wouldn’t you? Since sucralose is a sweetener, the company should NOT be allowed to say “No artificial flavors.” Or if so, then immediately below, it must say “Sweetened with sucralose, an artificial sweetener.”
Otherwise this is just disingenuous, especially for people who don’t know what sucralose is (after all, it sounds like sucrose or glucose, but is not a real sugar).
So my complaints are:
Companies should not be able to claim “no artificial flavors” while using an artificial sweetener unless clarified to exclude sweeteners (in the immediate vicinity of the text in question).
When artificial sweeteners are used, they should be declared together (somewhere other than the ingredient list).
Alan Hogan
You can voice your opinion by emailing consumer@fda.gov.
