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> But since avocado oil is relatively new on the scene, the Food and Drug Administration has not yet adopted “standards of identity,” which are basic food stand

> But since avocado oil is relatively new on the scene, the Food and Drug Administration has not yet adopted “standards of identity,” which are basic food standards designed to protect consumers from being cheated by inferior products or confused by misleading labels. Over the last 80 years, the FDA has issued standards of identity for hundreds of products, like whiskey, chocolate, juices and mayonnaise. ... > Avocado oil isn’t the only product without enforceable standards. Honey, spices and ground coffee are other common examples. The FDA should wait until there's sufficient interest/demand for such a standard before implementing such a thing. We should not expect the FDA to be on the frontend of trends in food products. And clearly - if honey and coffee aren't standardized, not every food product needs to have such a standard.

jacobr1 5y ago
What about some kind of fraud/false-advertising catch-all? Do we really need to wait for popularity in order to have a more generic regulation? There are multiple ways to come at the problem, we could just say that the species origin of any oil included at greater than 1% concentration is required to be labeled in the ingredients and any oil not composed of greater than 95% concentration of single source must be labeled as "mixed" I'm sure the legalease version of the above is a 100 page doc, but the FDA does provide similar generic rulings.
thaumasiotes 5y ago
We're better off without any FDA standards of identity. Even maxerickson isn't asking for one; he's asking for a regulation that limits the use of ingredient names in general, not the names of individual products specifically. There is no public interest -- not in the sense of improving public welfare, and not in the sense of public demand -- in FDA standards of identity. Standards of identity made the news recently, when the FDA granted an obvious petition after thinking for just 24 years: https://reason.com/2022/01/12/the-fda-finally-liberates-french-dressing-from-72-year-old-ingredient-mandates/ https://reason.com/2022/01/12/the-fda-finally-liberates-fren...
- zerocrates 5y ago
  I think standards of identity (or other FDA action that isn't necessarily a standard of identity) for things like single-ingredient products like these oils is probably not really problematic... straightforward concrete rules about the point you can no longer call the product "avocado oil" because it's so much something else are to me a perfectly reasonable exercise of the government's power. To some degree this kind of thing is at least theoretically covered by existing general provisions, but enforcement is likely to be laxer than necessary where the "line" is fuzzy and there's a likelihood of litigation over it. This is especially true for cooking oil, a major part of the differentiation between types and grades of oil is down to health benefits the consumer can't really detect on their own. Having solid rules that allow simple comparisons of the labeling that actually provide useful workable information is just providing the necessary framework for consumers to make informed choices. This is different from, say, being able to tell whether or not you like your frozen cherry pie in the absence of the puzzlingly unique and specific frozen cherry pie food standard. We definitely have a variety of legacy standards that aren't productive.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    > I think standards of identity (or other FDA action that isn't necessarily a standard of identity) for things like single-ingredient products like these oils is probably not really problematic... straightforward concrete rules about the point you can no longer call the product "avocado oil" because it's so much something else are to me a perfectly reasonable exercise of the government's power So, the minor point is that this isn't a standard of identity. It'd be something different. The more important point is that what you're talking about doesn't make sense. There is no particular reason to think that "avocado oil" is a single-ingredient product any more than you would think the same of "pomegranate juice". By volume, most juices are apple juice or grape juice, for the excellent reason that, in order to even be palatable to most consumers, pomegranate juice (for example) requires heavy dilution. Apple and grape juice are used because their flavors are so weak. But you're not getting ripped off when you buy pomegranate juice; you're getting exactly what you want. The place to note that something is a single-ingredient product is in the ingredients list, like here: https://www.amazon.com/Kevala-Avocado-Oil-Fluid-Ounce/dp/B00ATAI4HC/ https://www.amazon.com/Kevala-Avocado-Oil-Fluid-Ounce/dp/B00... . And if the ingredients list is fraudulent, that isn't the same problem as the fact that some people are aesthetically opposed to the product's name.

jacobr1 5y ago

What about some kind of fraud/false-advertising catch-all? Do we really need to wait for popularity in order to have a more generic regulation? There are multiple ways to come at the problem, we could just say that the species origin of any oil included at greater than 1% concentration is required to be labeled in the ingredients and any oil not composed of greater than 95% concentration of single source must be labeled as "mixed" I'm sure the legalease version of the above is a 100 page doc, but the FDA does provide similar generic rulings.

thaumasiotes 5y ago

We're better off without any FDA standards of identity. Even maxerickson isn't asking for one; he's asking for a regulation that limits the use of ingredient names in general, not the names of individual products specifically. There is no public interest -- not in the sense of improving public welfare, and not in the sense of public demand -- in FDA standards of identity. Standards of identity made the news recently, when the FDA granted an obvious petition after thinking for just 24 years: https://reason.com/2022/01/12/the-fda-finally-liberates-french-dressing-from-72-year-old-ingredient-mandates/ https://reason.com/2022/01/12/the-fda-finally-liberates-fren...

zerocrates 5y ago
I think standards of identity (or other FDA action that isn't necessarily a standard of identity) for things like single-ingredient products like these oils is probably not really problematic... straightforward concrete rules about the point you can no longer call the product "avocado oil" because it's so much something else are to me a perfectly reasonable exercise of the government's power. To some degree this kind of thing is at least theoretically covered by existing general provisions, but enforcement is likely to be laxer than necessary where the "line" is fuzzy and there's a likelihood of litigation over it. This is especially true for cooking oil, a major part of the differentiation between types and grades of oil is down to health benefits the consumer can't really detect on their own. Having solid rules that allow simple comparisons of the labeling that actually provide useful workable information is just providing the necessary framework for consumers to make informed choices. This is different from, say, being able to tell whether or not you like your frozen cherry pie in the absence of the puzzlingly unique and specific frozen cherry pie food standard. We definitely have a variety of legacy standards that aren't productive.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > I think standards of identity (or other FDA action that isn't necessarily a standard of identity) for things like single-ingredient products like these oils is probably not really problematic... straightforward concrete rules about the point you can no longer call the product "avocado oil" because it's so much something else are to me a perfectly reasonable exercise of the government's power So, the minor point is that this isn't a standard of identity. It'd be something different. The more important point is that what you're talking about doesn't make sense. There is no particular reason to think that "avocado oil" is a single-ingredient product any more than you would think the same of "pomegranate juice". By volume, most juices are apple juice or grape juice, for the excellent reason that, in order to even be palatable to most consumers, pomegranate juice (for example) requires heavy dilution. Apple and grape juice are used because their flavors are so weak. But you're not getting ripped off when you buy pomegranate juice; you're getting exactly what you want. The place to note that something is a single-ingredient product is in the ingredients list, like here: https://www.amazon.com/Kevala-Avocado-Oil-Fluid-Ounce/dp/B00ATAI4HC/ https://www.amazon.com/Kevala-Avocado-Oil-Fluid-Ounce/dp/B00... . And if the ingredients list is fraudulent, that isn't the same problem as the fact that some people are aesthetically opposed to the product's name.