According to the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (BBB), Wrigley should modify or discontinue some of the claims it makes for its Eclipse® brand chewing gum. Following a challenge by Cadbury Adams USA, which makes competing products, the BBB’s advertising division examined Wrigley claims that its gum “kills germs and cures bad breath.” The division determined that such claims “convey the message that Eclipse with MBE [magnolia bark extract] is different from other gums based on its germ killing capabilities which is attributable to the addition of MBE.” Because scientific studies did not provide the support necessary to substantiate the claims due to purported methodological flaws, the division “recommended that the print advertising and packaging claims be discontinued or modified to indicate that there is emerging evidence as to MBE’s germ killing capability without expressly or by implication communicating that there is credible scientific evidence…
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Investigative reporter Andrew Schneider has published an item on his blog about “popcorn lung” problems faced by workers in other industries, such as candy manufacturing, exposed to diacetyl, a butter-flavoring chemical. According to Schneider, five patients diagnosed with the sometimes-fatal lung disease worked at a now closed Brach’s candy plant in Chicago. While federal occupational health and safety inspectors cannot investigate conditions in a closed facility, International Brotherhood of Teamster’s officials are reportedly calling on them to inspect candy plants in Tennessee. The union is apparently concerned that workers outside the popcorn industry are also being exposed to disabling levels of diacetyl and are not aware of it. Schneider also reports that a trial against flavoring manufacturers began on April 6, 2009, for claims involving a woman who allegedly developed bronchiolitis obliterans while working at a plant that produced popular brands of popcorn. A physician who was expected to be…
The recession seems to have a sweet tooth, according to this New York Times reporter who discovered that many big candy makers are enjoying rising sales and surprising profits despite a sour economy. Haughney reports that that Cadbury had a 30 percent rise in profits for 2008, Nestlé’s profits grew by 10.9 percent and Hershey, which struggled for much of last year, saw profits jump by 8.5 percent in the fourth quarter. Lindt & Sprüngli, which offers more expensive products, also reportedly expects chocolate sales to remain strong through mainstream retailers like Wal-Mart and Target, even though it plans to close some of its luxury retail stores this year. Theories vary as to exactly why candy sales are sweet, Haughney writes, but include the notion that candy is relatively inexpensive and “seems to conjure memories of times before bank collapses and government bailouts.” She writes that store owners and manufacturers find…
