ANH General Counsel Takes Historic 13th Win Against FDA

…and he’s just warming up.

THE TOPLINE

• Jonathan Emord, ANH’s General Counsel, aka the “FDA Dragon Slayer,” has made history by winning his 13^th lawsuit against the FDA, more wins against the agency than any other lawyer.
• The case demonstrates that the FDA’s decision that unfairly classified the sugar alternative tagatose as a regular sugar on food labels was illegal and would mislead consumers about its health benefits.
• Tagatose is a low-calorie, naturally-occurring sugar with potential health benefits, including improved glycemic control and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, which distinguishes it from conventional sugar.
• The court’s decision, which overturned the FDA’s denial of Bonumose’s petition for tagatose, is a big win for consumer health and transparency, and it sets the stage for further legal challenges to FDA regulations.

Leading US constitutional lawyer, Jonathan Emord, has scored yet another victory in making food labels more transparent. This win paves the way for healthier sugar alternatives to gain a foothold in the market, which could save thousands of lives and help us battle the chronic disease epidemic.

The case involves a company called Bonumose that makes a monosaccharide called tagatose, a rare, naturally-occurring sugar which has 90 percent of the sweetness of traditional sugar but only one-third of the calories. In fact, good evidence shows that tagatose has many health benefits, including increasing glycemic control, reducing risk for cardiovascular disease and tooth decay, and functioning as a prebiotic.

Make no mistake: sugar is killing us. Americans consume three pounds of sugar every week. This consumption causes chronic diseases that kill millions of people and cost trillions of dollars to treat. Given these facts and the consistent advice from the government’s own nutrition “experts” to reduce the amount of added sugar in our diet, you’d think health bureaucrats would be all for encouraging Americans to eat healthier alternatives to conventional sugar.

You’d be wrong. The FDA wants to treat tagatose like regular sugar for the purpose of food labeling on the Nutrition Facts Panel, lumping it in with other “added sugars.” This is deeply misleading: foods with tagatose are probably healthier than foods with conventional sugar, but it would all look the same to consumers looking at the food label. By conflating tagatose with conventional sugar, the FDA would be misleading millions of consumers who might miss out on foods that could actually improve their health.

Bonumose filed a Citizen’s Petition with the FDA to exempt tagatose from being treated like a traditional sugar on food labels. When the FDA denied the Petition, ANH General Counsel Jonathan Emord, Esq., sued the FDA—and won!

Speaking about the victory, Emord said, “Judge Randolph Moss of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia did the nation a great service by holding arbitrary and capricious an anti-competitive ruling by the FDA.”

The court noted that the FDA had previously allowed an exemption for allulose, another natural sugar substitute, on the premise that, although it was chemically a sugar, its other properties (lower calories, doesn’t raise blood glucose levels, etc.) weighed in favor of the compound not being counted as an added sugar on food labels. Even though the exact same set of circumstances applied to tagatose, the agency insisted tagatose should be counted as a traditional sugar. The court agreed with Emord and Bonumose that this resulted in an arbitrary and capricious decision and vacated the FDA’s denial of Bonumose’s Citizen’s Petition.

Emord continued, “Judge Moss’s decision paves the way for this product which, in turn, holds out the promise of saving thousands of lives of diabetics and people who suffer from heart disease and obesity.”

Emord’s 13^th win gives even more impetus to ANH’s legal efforts to win back freedoms that have been taken away by the FDA and other federal agencies—particularly in this exciting, post-Chevron era. Keep on the lookout for future updates on our legal efforts, and please consider donating to support this important work!