FDA Acts to Delete ‘Fresh’ Label on Juice

WASHINGTON —  The Food and Drug Administration began legal action Wednesday against Procter & Gamble’s Citrus Hill Fresh Choice--the nation’s third-largest selling orange juice--for using the word “fresh” on its label when “the product isn’t fresh,” the agency said.

“The food label must be truthful,” said Dr. David A. Kessler, the FDA’s new commissioner, in remarks before a Food and Drug Law Institute conference in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. “We have taken firm action on the use of the term ‘fresh’ on the food label.”

The agency said that it began a “seizure” action at the company’s Minneapolis warehouse to prevent further shipments of juice from reaching the market. The move does not affect products already in the stores, the FDA said, nor does it involve a threat to public health.

FDA spokesman Jeff Nesbit said that the action would prompt a legal procedure intended to force the company to correct its label. It was taken after the company failed to heed repeated warnings that the use of the term “fresh” on the label violated long-standing FDA policy.

“It’s a question of truth-in-labeling and whether consumers get what they pay for and what they are told they are paying for,” Nesbit said.

It was Kessler’s first definitive enforcement action since taking over the FDA last fall, and marked the first time in many years that the agency has moved to seize such a highly marketed product. The FDA has been under fire by Congress and others in recent years for its failure to fully carry out its enforcement authority in regulating foods and other products under its jurisdiction.

Wendy Jacques, speaking for Procter & Gamble, said that the company believes its products “are properly labeled” and that consumers have not been misled by the use of the term “fresh” in the product’s name.

“Our product is clearly labeled 100% orange juice from concentrate,” she said. “The bottom line is, what do consumers perceive our product to be? We have strong evidence in the form of consumer research that indicates that consumers understand what our product is.”