Coronary In Cone Companies Threatened With Law Suits

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" Coronary In Cone " Companies Threatened With Law Suits

For Failing to Warn About Artery-Clogging Fats and Calories

http://banzhaf.net/docs/icecreamltr.html

 

Six major ice cream parlor chains have been put on legal

notice that they may be sued if they don't begin disclosing just how

much artery-clogging fat and calories their offerings contain,

especially by children shopping alone who lack adult knowledge and

judgment, and who may be particularly susceptible.

The move comes in the wake of four successful " fat law

suits " ; recent moves by Kraft, McDonald's, Frito-Lay, and other

companies to respond to concerns about obesity litigation; more

information about the size and severity of pediatric obesity;

growing legal pressure forcing major school districts to ban or cut

back on serving fattening foods and drinks to students; and the

discovery that at least one ice cream parlor already provides this

information to customers old and young.

" While many people know that ice cream isn't a diet food,

many don't appreciate - because they aren't really being told - just

how bad it is, says public interest law professor John F. Banzhaf

III who authored the letter with Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D.,

Executive Director of Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Prof. Banzhaf suggests that most people are unlikely to

suspect that:

¡ö one ice cream cone, even without any ice cream, can contain

half a day's worth of saturated fat

¡ö a frozen yogurt advertised as " fat free " actually contains 11

grams of fat and far more calories than it claims

¡ö a frozen yogurt advertised as " 96% fat free " still contains a

quarter-of-a-day's worth of saturated fat

¡ö a single ice cream sundae can contain two whole day's worth of

saturated fat

¡ö drinking one milk shake can be like eating three McDonald's

Quarter Pounders

" McDonald's learned the hard way that failure to disclose

a 'material fact' - something which consumers might not know or

appreciate - can create millions of dollars in potential liability,

even if the fact is of interest only to a very small fraction of

their customers, " said Banzhaf. He referred to the company's

failure to disclose that its french fries contained minute amounts

of beef fat, something which was of interest only to Muslims,

Hindus, and vegans. Similarly, three supermarket chains recently

were sued for not disclosing that the coloring they had added to

their salmon didn't indicate that the fish were wild rather than

farm raised.

" Patrons of ice cream parlors, including adults but

especially children, cannot be expected to exercise personal

responsibility unless they are given appropriate nutritional

information - as they are when they look at nutrition labels in food

stores - about how fattening and fat clogging a product is, " argues

Banzhaf.

Children who get diabetes - as one third of them now will -

which was caused in part by eating ice cream which they may have

known was fattening, but never dreamed might have two day's worth of

saturated fat, or by thoughtfully selecting 'fat free' frozen

yogurt only to find out later than it contains 11 grams of fat; or

by not realizing that even an empty ice cream cone can contain half

a day's worth of saturated fat, can and probably will be able to

recover appropriate damages. "

The fact that one ice cream parlor does list the calorie,

fat, protein, and carbohydrate content on the glass display case

over each tub of frozen dessert shows that even those within the

industry recognize that the public not only doesn't know but also

needs this very information. It also shows that providing it

doesn't put them out of business; it simply allows consumers to make

a knowledgeable choice as they do now when they compare two

different ice creams - or an ice cream and a frozen yogurt - in a

food store.

Letters threatening legal action by " concerned consumers,

legal action organizations, or even state officials " are being sent

out today by " Certified Mail, Receipt Requested " to Baskin-Robbins,

Ben & Jerry's, Cold Stone Creamery, Friendly's, Haagen-Dazs, and

TCBY.

" While the warnings may come too late to affect their

operations this summer, " says Banzhaf, " the companies cannot assume

that they will have a litigation-free summer of 2004 if they

continue peddling desserts with unsuspectedly large amounts of

artery-clogging fat without any real warning. Jurors told how at

least one chain of ice cream parlors is already providing this

information will naturally wonder why all customers are not entitled

to the same level of protection.¡±

 

COPY OF LETTER FOLLOWS. For more information, see:

http://cspinet.com/

 

CERTIFIED MAIL - RECEIPT REQUESTED

 

The enclosed article in the July-August issue of the Nutrition

Action Healthletter, which is published by the Center for Science in

the Public Interest (CSPI), discusses the nutrient content of

products sold by your and other ice cream chains. The data are based

primarily on company data, supplemented by tests conducted by CSPI.

 

The findings of the article are disturbing, because all but a few

products (such as plain sorbets, low-fat ice cream, and frozen

yogurts) provide dangerously large amounts of calories and saturated

fat, which promote obesity, heart disease, and other serious medical

problems in both children and adults. Some of your larger ¡°snacks¡±

provide upwards of 1,000 calories. That is more than a healthy

meal¡¯s worth of calories, and, together with soft drinks,

hamburgers, fries, and a multitude of other high-calorie foods, is a

prescription for obesity, especially for young children, since their

caloric needs and tolerances are less than those of adults.

 

Consumers can¡¯t exercise personal responsibility without clear,

conveniently available nutrition information - information that is

available at the ¡°point of sale¡± when decisions are made, not buried

inconveniently on a web site (to which customers certainly do not

have access while waiting in line) or in hard-to-find and hard-to-

read brochures or notebooks. Such information would enable

consumers to make informed choices before buying 250-, 500- or even

1,000-calorie items.

 

Nutrition information is especially important because children make

up a disproportionately large percentage of patrons of ice cream

parlors and usually lack the knowledge, maturity, and judgment to

appreciate the risks of eating foods high in calories and saturated

fat. As you know, children often go to ice cream parlors without

adults, either going there by themselves or while a parent is

shopping nearby. Many children are already very concerned about

their weight and calories¡ªeither because they are already overweight

and have been counseled to reduce their caloric intake or,

especially in the case of girls, because of generalized concerns

about gaining weight. In both situations, a significant percentage

of children likely would be interested in the calorie contents of

your offerings and, given readable, accessible information, might

choose treats with fewer calories. Therefore, the moral - and

perhaps even legal - obligation to provide complete and accurate

nutrition information about your products is all the greater.

 

Your failure to disclose such obviously material information as

unusually large calorie and saturated-fat loads may violate state

consumer protection laws and/or your common-law duty to disclose

material facts, and may invite law suits from concerned consumers,

legal action organizations, or even state officials. That is

especially true when the consumers are children since they are both

far less likely to be aware of the health hazards associated with

eating fattening foods and more susceptible to their effects. On

the other hand, if information about calories and fat were squarely

presented to them, many - including many girls and some boys

concerned about weight gain generally, along with overweight

children who have been counseled about the importance of limiting

calories - will be interested, likelier to make different choices,

and, as a result, eat more healthful treats.

 

As you may recall, three supermarket chains recently were sued for

not disclosing that color had been added to farmed salmon; those

chains settled and labeling has become a standard practice. Also, a

major fast-food company was sued for failing to reveal a material

fact - that its french fries contained beef fat - even though that

fact was of concern only to the relatively small percentage of its

customers who were Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and vegans.

 

For all of these reasons, we urge you to list the calorie (and,

ideally, saturated fat) content of each item on your menu boards

and/or menus.

 

Baskin-Robbins stores in Canada list the calorie, fat, protein, and

carbohydrate content on the glass display case over each tub of

frozen dessert (though there¡¯s no similar information for shakes and

other products). That¡¯s exactly the kind of initiative that we hope

that your company would undertake in this country.

 

We would be pleased to discuss this matter with you and look forward

to your response.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D.

Executive Director

Center for Science in the Public Interest

1875 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite 300

Washington, DC 20009

202-777-8328

 

 

 

 

John F. Banzhaf III

Professor of Public Interest Law

George Washington University Law School

2000 H Street NW

Washington, DC 20006

202-994-7229