Yakult Overclaiming, Says EU

Have You Being Tricked For Years ? Hello! I'm back! :)

I came across this article that says that a panel of experts from the European Union (EU) has officially rejected Yakult’s health claim regarding its upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) benefits stemming from the consumption of Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota.

The panel, made up of a group of scientists from the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA)concludes that a cause and effect relationship has not been established between the consumption of Lactobacillus casei strain Shirota and maintenance of the upper respiratory tract defence against pathogens by maintaining immune defences. However, Yakult is undaunted by the EU’s statement stating their report has no bearing.

For more information, you can access the webpage at http://sg.entertainment.yahoo.com/news/yakult-overclaiming-says-eu-031926451.html

I thought that since we're doing our SOW and lesson plans pretty soon, we can download and keep this article for future use. As the issue stated involve a food product and covers some aspects of making informed consumer choices, we could perhaps use it as a case study questionfor our students when we teach the topic on Consumer Issues. It can also be an opportunity for students to debate on the relevance and accuracy of such a report and discuss ethics issues (if any) :)