Posted on 01/04/2006 6:26:19 PM PST by TFFKAMM
A consumer group is demanding that Frito-Lay put warning labels on chips with the fat substitute olestra or face a lawsuit by a Massachusetts woman who says she got stomach cramps and had to use the bathroom quickly after eating the snacks.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest said Wednesday that 30-year-old Lori Perlow of Braintree, Mass., would sue Frito-Lay under a consumer-friendly deceptive-advertising law in the Bay State.
Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo Inc., said warning labels are not needed for its Light lines of potato and corn chips.
"It's an extremely safe product, well-tested," said Frito-Lay spokeswoman Aurora Gonzalez. "If the law says we don't have to have (a label), we don't see the need for it either."
The Food and Drug Administration approved olestra, made by Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co., in 1996 but required products with the fake fat to carry a label warning that they could cause cramps and diarrhea. The requirement was lifted in 2003 after the agency determined that any ill effects of olestra were mild and rare.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest has campaigned against olestra for many years and opposed the lifting of the warning label. Its director of litigation, Stephen Gardner, accused Frito-Lay of trying to hide the consequences of eating products with olestra despite more than 20,000 consumer complaints.
In a letter to the company Wednesday, Gardner said Perlow experienced cramps and gas for several hours after eating Ruffles Light cheddar potato chips. Perlow said she avoided eating Wow! chips because of olestra but didn't realize Ruffles Light chips also contained the fake fat.
The consumer group contends that Frito-Lay renamed the chips last year to fool consumers into thinking the snacks didn't contain olestra...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Let her show damages.
Personally, I'd let her sue, and simply use every opportunity to let the public know this silly twit sued over diarrhea.
Its director of litigation, Stephen Gardner, accused Frito-Lay of trying to hide the consequences of eating products with olestra despite more than 20,000 consumer complaints.
And despite about a million news reports about olestra causing diarrhea.
> ... demanding that Frito-Lay put warning labels on
> chips with the fat substitute olestra ...
I avoid oileakstra products, but I thought they already
had the warnings.
LOL I guess she never watched the MAD TV skits about "anal leakage" ROFL!!!!
At the time I was trying to be healthier, but if I was going to have to deal with that as a side effect, I didn't really eat that many chips to make it worth the benefits and extra cost.
Do not click this link:
http://www.cspinet.org/new/flaynal.html
Maybe she should just stop eating the chips... Oh what that would make to much sense.
I, um, knew this two days after the product was released. This was a well-known side-effect of rapid eating of this stuff. But what kind of idiot sues over it?
There's all kinds of unwanted digestive output she could sue over. Is she going to sue Hormel to put warning labels on cans of chili? Baked beans? Bean dip?
Man, there's a fortune to be made off of White Castle.
She just now found out about this? It's been known ever since it came out that this was a possible side effect.
Perhaps she is just full of crap!
If she thinks this is bad, consider the "weight loss" drug Xenical.
I have patients who ask me about this stuff and I inform them that it is guaranteed to cause "intestinal urgency" and skid marks in their drawers.
Haven't written a prescription for it yet.
Then again, if you knew you were going to mess your pants with every meal it would probably cut down on your food consumption...
Damn, I'm going to sue the water department of Mexico City.
Why on earth would anyone want to eat a fake *food* product that's so foreign to the human body that it would cause this kind of result? My guidelines are: 1)If I can't pronounce it, I don't eat it. 2) If it's a manmade copy of a natural,normal old-fashioned food, I'll take my chances with the original. At least my body recognises it AS food.
So, she shouldn't eat a whole bag of them at one sitting.
That said, anyone who eats "food" with so many ingredients you need a magnifying glass, 10 minutes, and a technical dictionary to read them, gets what they deserve.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.