Labeling

In a crackdown on dubious claims on food packages, the Food and Drug Administration has sent warning letters to 17 producers for making what it said were misleading statements about nutrition and health benefits. The agency also issued an industrywide challenge to upgrade the quality of nutrition labeling. The warning letters apply to 22 products and challenge labeling language on such issues as fat content, nutrient standards and the purported ability of a particular food to prevent medical problems.

The Obama campaign Tuesday launches a tough new hit on Mitt Romney's record on jobs and his personal wealth, raising for the first time in paid advertising the fact that the Republican had assets in a Swiss bank account. The ad buy, which a campaign aide called "significant," is at the same time an offensive maneuver meant to try and shape how the public views the now-presumptive GOP presidential nominee and a defensive one, reacting to another multimillion-dollar television campaign from a leading outside group.

Maybe it's the sleepless nights. Maybe it's the daytime jitters. Whatever the reason, many people decide to cut back on caffeine -- only to find that it's harder than they thought. Caffeine turns up in expected places, in unexpected amounts. And recent years have seen an explosion in the number of caffeinated products on the market: energy drinks, of course, but also chewing gum, candy bars and (for a brief while) potato chips. A lack of labeling guidelines leaves many consumers in the dark about just how much caffeine the products contain.

Troubled film financier David Bergstein has sued the owners of Miramax, alleging that they denied him money and an equity stake owed for his role in the acquisition of the film label from Walt Disney Co. in 2010. The suit, filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court by the law firm Weingarten Brown, contends that Bergstein — who has been involved in dozens of lawsuits, many related to his activities in the film business — played a crucial role in the deal to acquire Miramax. It asserts that Santa Monica private equity firm Colony Capital, one of Miramax's new owners, and its principal Richard Nanula conspired to deny Bergstein a $6.1-million fee and 3.3% stake they agreed to provide him as part of the purchase.

You'd think, with the ugly truth at last laid out before them courtesy of the new labeling law, California's restaurant diners would alter their behavior. That's a no-brainer, right? Certainly, health experts hope that clearly displayed nutrition facts will encourage folks to straighten up and order right. But the evidence so far is inconclusive. It doesn't help that restaurant menu labeling is still fairly new — the first law went into effect in New York City in July 2008 — so the bulk of what's known comes from simulations that may not mirror real-life dining behavior.

Re "Label Genetically Altered Food," Commentary, April 9: The biotech industry does not oppose science-based labeling. We support consumers' right to know what we all are eating. Crops and foods improved through biotechnology have been evaluated and examined publicly by the Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration. The testing results and guidelines and the crops and food evaluated are described in documents available on their Web sites.

I resent your appellation of Rush Limbaugh as a "right-wing" radio host (TV Times, Sept. 13). As you seem to insist on labels for those who are not politically correct, you could have at least referred to him as a conservative, which is not as inflammatory a buzz word. Would you call Whoopi Goldberg, Arsenio Hall, Jay Leno or Phil Donahue "leftist" talk-show hosts? No way. Yet some people consider them to be out in left field. This kind of subtle insertion of political posturing into so-called objective journalism is typical of The Times and the media, in general.

It is simply outrageous that the State of California refuses to require labeling of milk and dairy products produced using Posilac (the brand name for recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone, rBGH). The "scientific community" to which Agriculture Secretary Henry Voss refers are by and large paid lackeys of Monsanto. The scientific community has previously assured us of the safety of nuclear radiation, asbestos and tobacco, among other things. Not exactly an impressive track record. Beyond health, though, the real issues are about economics and democracy.

portland, ore. -- A food industry group is voluntarily halting promotion of its nutrition labeling program after federal regulators said such systems may be misleading consumers, officials with the group said today. Industry leaders launched the "Smart Choices" program in August to identify foods that meet certain nutritional standards and then highlight them for consumers with a green label on package fronts. But the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that there were so many labeling programs with different criteria that they may mislead consumers about the health benefits of certain foods.

You missed an important point in your exposition of what is at stake if denigrating labels on films are legislatively mandated into existence (Aug. 18). The proposed legislation is not about "aesthetic sensibilities." It's about money and power in Hollywood. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) supports this legislation, a position which seems incomprehensible to the Video Software Dealers Assn., the trade association for the video industry. Boxer claims that this obnoxious labeling falls into the category of "consumer protection."

As the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival expands from one weekend to two, so do the fashion and music marketing opportunities in Southern California. Labels such as Levi's, H&M, Lacoste, Armani A|X, Mulberry and Madewell (J. Crew's little sister) not only will be targeting the boho masses with free watches and sunglasses, they will also be courting the performers in the hope that they will attend their high-profile events. The labels are leveraging both festival weekends (April 13-15 and 20-22)

With polls showing him comfortably ahead one day before the Wisconsin Republican primary, front-runner Mitt Romney joined with native son Rep. Paul Ryan to make the case that the GOP has the best formula to bring the federal budget under control. Ryan, who last week endorsed Romney, introduced the candidate at a campaign event at a building supply business in Green Bay, declaring that Romney is the best candidate to head off a "predictable economic crisis" if the federal deficit is not brought under control.

It's expensive! It's exotic! It's superfruit! Meaning what, exactly? The term "superfruit" has been applied to acai berries, maqui berries, yumberries, chokeberries, goji berries, lingonberries, lychee berries - a lot of berries, in other words, but also baobabs, mangosteens, sea buckthorn, jujube fruit, cupuacus, pitayas, pomegranates ... the list keeps growing. You may wonder what is it about these fruits that lifts them out of the ranks of the ordinary into exalted superfruit status.

Mitt Romney 's victory lap the day after the Illinois Republican primary has been erased by an Etch-A-Sketch, leaving the candidate to deal with a new wave of online mockery aimed at Romney's perceived tendency to adjust his views. On Tuesday night, Romney won a convincing percentage of the Illinois electorate, giving momentum to his campaign's claim that he is the inevitable nominee. On Wednesday morning, he landed the endorsement of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush . But Romney campaign aide Eric Fehrnstrom, speaking on CNN's "Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien," obliterated the positive vibes with his response to a question on whether the campaign was worried that some of its more conservative positions would alienate moderate voters in the general election.

Spoek Mathambo grew up in the Johannesburg township of Soweto, where his adolescence was defined by the end of apartheid. Now 27, this South African singer-rapper-producer has emerged as one of the year's most exciting new artists, with a bold sound bent on stylistic desegregation and an unlikely relationship with an American indie-rock label. Mathambo funnels a dizzying number of influences - both musical and cultural - into “Father Creeper,” due out Tuesday on Seattle's Sub Pop. His music is an electro-acoustic melee of swaggering rap verses, scratchy rock guitar, singsong vocal hooks and staticky white noise.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, recently depicted the conflict in Syria as "civil war. " Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton added that there was "every possibility" of civil war breaking out in Syria. Both of these portrayals of the conflict were meant to ratchet up pressure on the international community to prevent further violence. But in fact, describing a conflict as a civil war achieves exactly the opposite effect. It is not a call to arms; it is a call to inaction.

Re "Texas Delays Diet Supplement Rules," Sept. 6: Why are healthy young men dying after taking ephedrine? Because the 1994 nutritional labeling act is a toothless scam on a trusting public. It allows nutritional supplement companies to police themselves, which is like hiring foxes as security patrols for the henhouses. Truth is, we know more about what goes into a potato chip than we do about supplements that promise us health, beauty, athletic prowess and longer life. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has no power to check for ingredient content, purity and possible side effects.

Robert E. Gray, co-founder and longtime chief executive of women's clothier St. John Knits, died Tuesday at his Orange County home after a long illness. He was 86. Gray and his wife, Marie, started the company in a San Fernando Valley garage in 1962 on a romantic whim. Marie Hermann, a model who used the surname St. John professionally, wanted to raise money for a Hawaiian honeymoon, the story goes. She persuaded her fiance, Gray, who was an apparel salesman, to show a sample of a dress she designed and knit to a store buyer, thinking she might sell 20. Gray returned with orders for almost 200. "I absolutely collapsed," Marie Gray said Thursday.