Advocacy group Generation Green yesterday sent a letter to California's Attorney General Bill Lockyer, urging an investigation of what it called "misleading advertising practices" by Johnson & Johnson for its artificial sweetener Splenda.
EVANSTON, Illinois — Advocacy group Generation Green yesterday sent a letter to California's Attorney General Bill Lockyer, urging an investigation of what it called "misleading advertising practices" by Johnson & Johnson for its artificial sweetener Splenda.
Generation Green says the advertising misleads consumers into believing that Splenda is a natural product, made from sugar. Johnson & Johnson does not list sugar as an ingredient in Splenda. In the letter, Generation Green called on the state of California to halt Johnson & Johnson's Splenda marketing campaign within the state.
Rochelle Davis, Executive Director, and Robert M. Brandon, Project Director, both of Generation Green, sent the following letter, dated Oct. 10, to California's Attorney General Bill Lockyer:
"On behalf of Generation Green and thousands of member families concerned about the health and welfare of our children, I would vigorously echo the recent calls upon your office to begin an investigation into misleading advertising by Johnson & Johnson' s McNeil Nutritionals LLC for the artificial sweetener sucralose, which is sold under the brand-name Splenda.
Generation Green is a non-profit advocacy group comprised of parents and other concerned citizens who favor corporate and governmental policies that will allow children to grow up protected from exposure to toxins. We place great importance on protecting the consumer's right to know about chemical exposure, particularly related to food so that people are able to make informed decisions, especially with respect to their children's health.
Splenda comprises about a third of the artificial sweetener market. It was approved as a food additive by the FDA in 1998; Canada approved it for consumption in 1991. Generation Green attributed Splenda's sales growth to "the perception that Splenda is natural and sugar-based." The organization asserted that Splenda is "a chemically created product in which sugar molecules are manipulated through chlorination and other processes so as to be completely unrecognizable as sugar."Splenda is a version of the sugar derivative sucralose, which is chlorinated.The International Food Information Council, an industry lobbying organization, says that "more than 100 scientific studies conducted over a 20-year period have conclusively demonstrated that sucralose is safe for consumption."Source: Generation Green, International Food Information Council
