The organic food isle at the grocery store kind of ticks me off, not that I’m against health food (I’m all for it) but that I don’t have any confidence in the validity of the organic stickers. How do I know these companies are really producing their food in an “organic” way? Is there an organization or regulatory group that investigates these “organic” claims on non-meat products? I’m also quite skeptical of the foods that claim to have extra vitamins/antioxidants or come with a super-duper-nutritious injected-with-vitamins label. Don’t lie to me on the front of your product. Show me the ingredients and I’ll tell you what I think of it.

There aren’t any laws in place to punish unsubstantiated claims of producing organic foods, but thankfully there are consequences for drugs that make unsubstantiated claims.

New Zealand brothers John and Ian Fistonich were fined $6,750 for marketing an unregistered herbal horse product with unsubstantiated therapeutic claims.  Their product, Verm-X, claims to repel internal parasites and worms. Not only is there a lack of evidence to validate these claims, but also Verm-X wasn’t registered with the New Zealand Food Safety Authority (NZFSA). Therapeutic products in NZ must be registered under the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) Act. ACVM Director Debbie Morris says that “Verm-X has not gone through NZFSA’s rigorous risk assessment and management process to ensure it is safe and does what it says it’s going to do on the label.”

On the product’s website, Verm-X is praised with its parasitic-controlling herbs, herbs for blood cleansing and also herbs for gut maintenance. They also have a “chemical-free” claim, which is another pet peeve of mine. I’m sure they’re going for the all-natural appeal, but c’mon, everything is made of chemicals.  If it really was “chemical-free” I think it would have a different name like “anti-matter horse dewormer.” But that’s not really the point here. The point is there haven’t been any studies conducted to test the effectiveness of these herbal pellets, and the NZFSA hasn’t cleared Verm-X to be on the market. This includes their horse formulation as well as all the other formulations they have for the rest of the zoo in the backyard.

Tell us what’s in your product, verify it with the NZFSA and prove your claims. The same goes for therapeutic drugs in the US – make sure you’re a friend of the Food and Drug Administration before putting your product out there.