Oh, What Those Oats Did

Newswise — “Health claim” labels that link nutrients to disease prevention have a contentious history involving regulators, corporations, and the public. The “oat bran craze” of the late 1980s demonstrated how health claims have enormous profit potential, but also the need for regulation of these claims. Quaker Oats was granted the first food-specific health claim in January 1997 when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determined that consumption of soluble fiber from oats lowered risk of heart disease. The company made the oat health claim a central part of its strategy and has served as a model for other manufacturers seeking health claims. A new article in Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety titled, “Oh, What Those Oats Can Do. Quaker Oats, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Market Value of Scientific Evidence 1984 to 2010”, examines the institutional interactions and underlying values that made health claims desirable, legally possible and profitable from the 1980s onward.

Read the full Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety article.