What is Bifidus Regularis? » yoghurt

BBC Radio 4 Food Programme on legislation for health claims for foods

admin — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 10:40:11 +0000

The Food Programme looks at new legislation controlling how food companies can make health claims for their products. There’s a segment in there about a research group who look at prebiotics and probiotics, particularly yoghurts, which is funded by the food industry. Note how, when he talks about the benefits of strains of bifidus, the researcher almost exlcusively talks about prebiotics, not probiotics.

The Food Programme – Beetroot and Health Legislation

What are prebiotics? Find out on the probiotics, prebiotics and intestinal flora page.

Infinite Thought gets to “Y” in her alphabet – Yoghurt

admin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:43:45 +0000

This is the sort of yoghurt whose advertisement features middle-class women drinking coffee from a cafetiere and complaining in a sharing sort of way that they feel bloated all the time. Now, I know that this feeling of bloatedness comes from living like a lobotomised, over-propertied seal at the end of history rather than from not eating enough yoghurt, but I suppose they had to flog it somehow. It’s probably full of sugar and poison anyway, but it’s got a green label so it must be better than that pink-packaged petit filou stuff that really posh children like to eat with tiny spoons, the sort used to bash in the brains of cooked quails or something.

More here

Dannon To Pay $35 Million To Eaters Of Activia And DanActive Yogurts

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:43:10 +0000

Here’s an interesting story in terms of the wording of Dannon’s health claims for their DanActive yoghurt – but the compromise wording seems in many ways more misleading. At least the statement that DanActive has “a positive effect on your digestive tract’s immune system” is something that can be proved or disproved with research – and the court in effect ruled that it hadn’t been proved. But that DanActive will “interact with your digestive tract’s immune system” is true of anything. You could eat mud and it would interact with your digestive tract’s immune system – it’s a meaningless phrase. Which means that the word “immune” is only in there to suggest some kind of non-specific link between the yoghurt and the consumer’s immune system.

The class-action lawsuit against Dannon alleging false advertising of their Activia and DanActive products has finally been settled. As you may recall (but probably don’t), the suit was filed back in January 2008, and accused the company of advertising yogurt-induced health benefits that may or may not actually exist.

As part of the settlement, the company agreed to make changes to the labeling and advertising of Activia and DanActive by increasing the visibility of the scientific names of the “probiotic” cultures in the yogurts, court documents said. Dannon also agreed to remove the word “immunity” from its DanActive products.

DanActive labels that say the yogurt has “a positive effect on your digestive tract’s immune system” will be reworded to say the yogurt will “interact with your digestive tract’s immune system.”

Full story

If you go to www.csgrr.com/dannon you can claim part of a $35 million fund set up by Dannon to pay out to people who believe they were the victims of Dannon falsely advertising the health benefits of eating their yoghurts.