Muscle Milk Warned by FDA Following NMPF Criticism of Label Terms
August 2, 2011
On June 29, 2011, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) San Francisco District office sent a warning letter to CytoSportTM, Inc., Benicia, CA, concerning alleged misbranding of some of the company’s Muscle Milk® products.
FDA reviewed the labels for the company’s Chocolate Muscle Milk® Protein Nutrition Shake, Vanilla Creme Muscle Milk® Light Nutritional Shake and Chocolate Peanut Caramel Muscle Milk® products, and concluded that these products are misbranded because the labels are false or misleading. The warning letter pointed to the “Contains No Milk” statement on the front of the package, which contradicted the presence of milk-derived ingredients in the ingredient statement and in the allergen statement. FDA’s warning letter also noted that Muscle Milk® Shake products were misbranded because they purported to be milk – based on the prominence of the word “Milk” on the front of the package – but did not conform to the standard of identity for milk according to the ingredient statement.
NMPF, whose own past efforts to draw attention to misbranded imitation dairy products have specifically cited Muscle Milk® products, welcomed FDA’s warning letter to CytoSportTM.
“We hope that FDA’s recent warning letter to Muscle Milk®’s CytoSportTM is an indication the agency is finally going to flex some of its own muscle against brands and products that misappropriate dairy terms on their labels,” said Beth Briczinski, NMPF’s Director, Dairy Foods and Nutrition.
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