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FTC’s “Friendly Reminder” on Product Claims

May 17, 2023 By Parker Adams

FTC’s “Friendly Reminder” on Product Claims

In early April of 2023, a Notice of Penalty was issued to nearly 700 companies by the Federal Trade Commission that focused on the substantiation of product claims. Not to be confused with the FDA, whose jurisdiction is primarily over claims appearing on product labeling, the FTC’s jurisdiction is over claims made in advertising. They state that “claims in advertisements must be truthful, cannot be deceptive or unfair, and must be evidence-based” (FTC Advertising and Marketing). Both organizations, however, have the right to monitor each other’s categories thanks to the 1971 FDA and FTC liaison agreement.

The goal of the Notice was to ensure companies are aware of acts and practices that are unfair and unlawful under the Federal Trade Commission Act. A few of the main takeaways from the notice include,

  • Requiring a reasonable basis from the advertiser that the claim can be backed by reliable evidence.
  • Requiring reliable scientific evidence to substantiate the claim.
  • Cannot falsely claim or imply the ability of a product to cure, mitigate, or treat any serious disease without statistically significant results from human clinical trials.

An important thing to note is that the notice extends to more than just stated claims. Advertisers are responsible for reasonable interpretations from the consumer. If a consumer can reasonably infer a claim from the advertisement, even if it is not explicitly stated, whatever the marketer’s intent was when making the claim is irrelevant (Section 3(a)(1)). An example given in the Health Products Compliance Guidance is as follows:

Example 1: A brochure for a weight-loss product shows images of doctors in white lab coats looking through microscopes, molecular structures, and a stack of medical journals.  These images give an impression of scientific legitimacy and likely convey an implied claim that the product has been clinically proven to be effective for weight loss.

Of the 670 companies that received this notice, most were in the dietary supplement, natural products, or essential oils industries. However, recipients were not restricted to those industries. Major retailers like Amazon, Costco, CVS Pharmacy, Pepsi Co., and a handful of pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer Inc, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., and AbbVie Inc. were included.

Similar notices have been issued by the FTC in the past. In 2021 two notices were issued detailing the guidelines around Endorsements and Testimonials, and Money-Making Opportunities. It is common for companies to receive notices from the FTC, and it is not an indication that those companies have broken the law. It is merely communicating the importance of substantiating advertising claims in accordance with the Health Products Compliance Guidance document.

Commissioner Christine S. Wilson announced that the “Commission cannot obtain civil penalties for first-time violations” in her statement following the issuance of the notice. This is an important detail to note because it demonstrates that companies are unable to be penalized without having first received a notice from the Commission. Receiving a notice of penalty does, however, allow the FTC to seek civil penalties if the advertisement claims are not deemed to be substantiated. Companies can face fines of up to $50,120 per violation.

To avoid civil penalties, and receiving future notices, it’s important to understand the FTC’s most recent Health Products Compliance Guidance. Difficulties can arise when due diligence is not executed before product launch. Especially because the FTC does not require preapproval before a product launch.

Many problems can be avoided by formulating with qualified product development partners who understand how to supply accurate nutritional and supplemental facts. With Sensapure being Your Destination for Product Development, we are equipped to help you meet your product claims and provide the appropriate documentation behind our materials and flavors.

It’s important to work with experts in the field of product development who know the ins and outs of raw materials to avoid future FTC complications. Working with an experienced attorney who specializes in food and supplement label reviews, and marketing claims is also recommended.

Ensuring that your advertising and product claims follow the FTC mandates can be daunting. Contact us today for product development and assistance with substantiating your product’s label claims.

Filed Under: News & Press Releases, Uncategorized

Building Better Chocolates

March 9, 2021 By Scott Rackham

FEB 23- BUILDING BETTER CHOCOLATES EVENT RECAP

On Feb 23rd Sensapure Flavors hosted the “Building Better Chocolates” training event for Sensapure customers. Nutrition brands and manufactures sent their product development teams to Salt Lake City for the morning to learn about the art and science of creating better tasting chocolate products.

 

Why Chocolate? (Because it’s chocolate!)

 

For decades, the top two selling flavors of all protein supplements have been chocolate and vanilla. And let’s face it… chocolate is just more fun. From decadent fudge flavors, to bright and sharp dark chocolates, there are as many ways to fall in love with chocolate as there are different uses for the tasty flavor

Some key words people used to describe their favorite chocolates were smooth, creamy, rich, and complex. With this information we are able to see how much mouthfeel impacts overall chocolate preference. We can use this information when formulating to include creamers, fats, and gums to recreate a similar consumer experience.

It’s all about the growth of Plant Proteins

Years ago, a protein shake meant one thing. A whey protein, artificially sweetened, creamy milk chocolate shake. And getting the flavor system right on a product with plenty of Sucralose and milk solids wasn’t all that tough. After all, it was essentially a powdered chocolate milkshake. But times have changed. The desire to swap out artificial sweeteners for non-sugar natural alternatives, and ditch the whey protein for either plant based or collagen sources makes the development of great tasting protein supplements a little more difficult.

With year-over-year growth exceeding 30% for plant-based protein, meal replacements, and powdered supplements, the need to find ways to deliver great tasting chocolate products has never been higher.

We started with craft chocolate

The day began with a chocolate tasting presented by the same folks who host Chocolate Fest every year in Salt Lake City… Caputo’s European Fine Foods. Adri Pachelli, head of education and all things chocolate at Caputo’s lead the tasting with a review of cacao history, cultivation, processing, fermentation techniques, roasting secrets, milling specs, and of course a deep dive into how crushed cacao becomes craft chocolate.

 

The Science of Chocolate

With our new found vocabulary and educated chocolate taste buds, we let Doug Gledhill, one of Sensapure’s certified flavor chemists walk us through how we can mimic the various component parts of chocolate flavors found in nature using either natural or artificial ingredients.  “As a flavor chemist we need to know all about nature so we can recreate it in the lab,” said Gledhill. “Cocoa Powder alone can have over a thousand different naturally occurring chemicals.”

Let the Tasting Begin

The group of 30+ participants then tasted four different categories of products (whey / plant / collagen / natural sweeteners / gums and masking agents), evaluating each of the 12 products on sweetness levels, flavor attributes, and overall preference.
During this portion of the taste testing experience, Sensapure was able to demonstrate some key changes that lead to the overall improvement of the product. Using the Sensapure Tasting App, we were able to record the unbiased feedback in our audience’s preference on the samples before and after Sensapure solutions were applied.

Filed Under: Conferences & Updates, Flavor Education, News & Press Releases, Uncategorized

An Inside Look at a New Flavor Company

November 14, 2018 By Sensapure

An Inside Look at a New Flavor Company

“I knew that we would have people come, I just didn’t expect this crowd,” one of our Flavor Chemists, Mariano Gascon said as he looked around the room. “It’s amazing.” We had a great time partnering with Dyad Labs for our open house to highlight our new flavor company a few weeks ago. It rewarding for the whole team to see all of the hard work that went into building the new, renovated space. We filled the space with customers, potential customers and friends and families. We ate great food, gave tours of the new space, and told over 300 people what we’re passionate about creating.

Protein Taste Tests

Some of the highlights from the open house include the Dyad “Guess That Protein” activity. We had our visitors taste different types of protein like whey or soy. Then they had to attempt to identify which was which. We also had the “Sensapure Soda Bar.” Our flavor chemists created the perfect drink flavors for a self-mixing experiment. Last but not least, we had our Street Taco station from our favorite stand, El Paisa Grill. “It was all that we had planned it to be,” our founder and CEO, Jeff Reynolds said.

The new space represents a year of hard work, contracting, designing and coordinating to get it up and running. “It has been a long project,” said Reynolds “sometimes we thought it would never end.” Reynolds says now that the project is complete, they’re thrilled with the result and what they’ve accomplished since launching.

Our Building’s Purpose

The bright, transparent, new space is impressive. However, Reynolds’ intention for the building is about more than an upbeat and inspiring environment for the team. “We really wanted to build a customer experience here where our customers and potential customers can come and we can help them as a technology partner.”

This day wasn’t possible without those who attended, met our team and heard what we’re building together with customers. This new space will create opportunities to do what we love most, the art of creating flavors. We can’t wait to operate in this new space as we collaborate with our customers to bring their product bases to life with our flavors through the unique Sensapure development process.

Thank you to all of those who came and have helped us along the way to reach our goals. If you missed out, check out this short video we put together to remember some of highlights of the day.

– Your Sensapure team

Filed Under: 2018 News, News & Press Releases, Year Archives Tagged With: brand, building, consumer, employee, flavor chemist, industry, ingredients, nutrition, open house, product development, standard, tour

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