FDA Warns Major Companies over Unlawful Green Tea Claims

Just weeks after researchers reported finding low levels of nutrients in store-bought green tea beverages, FDA (Rockville, MD) has now reprimanded two major companies for using misleading claims on their green tea beverages.

On August 30, the agency sent a warning letter to Dr. Pepper Snapple Group (Plano, TX) over its Canada Dry Sparkling Green Tea Ginger Ale.

FDA states that the product was making an improper nutrient content claim on its label: 'ENHANCED WITH 200 mg OF ANTIOXIDANTS FROM GREEN TEA * VITAMIN C.' Since the product is a carbonated beverage, FDA defines it as a snack food which does not comply with antioxidant claim requirements.

Days earlier, on August 23, FDA sent a warning letter to Unilever Inc. (Englewood, NJ) for the company...s Lipton Green Tea. The issue at hand was primarily the company...s citing of research at its website'”research that left FDA to conclude the product was being characterized as a drug. The 'therapeutic claims' being made by the company, on a product not considered Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS), were deemed unauthorized.