The Food Police and QSRs

Michael Jacobson is a self-appointed food policeman. His organization, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), has brought lawsuits against Burger King, KFC, Denny’s and Starbucks. He has also sued such brands as Sara Lee, Red Bull and Vitaminwater.

The holder of a Ph.D. in microbiology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Jacobson founded the CSPI in 1971.

He sued Denny’s recently for not limiting the amount of “sodium” (going by the name of “salt” for most of us) in its food. Jacobson says the tasty addition is “the single most dangerous ingredient in the food supply” and causes high blood pressure, heart disease and strokes. Food should come with a high sodium label if the amount is over a certain threshhold, he says.

Milk, he adds, should be two percent or less, not whole the way it comes from Mother Nature. He doesn’t like the large meals many restaurants serve. He wants calorie counts on menus for restaurants or chains with sales of $3 million or more. People should switch from sodas with sugar in them to diet soda, he says, and eat less meat and more vegetables.

While his recommendations themselves may be fine, although many well-informed people vehemently disagree with him, his use of such tactics as formal agreements and lawsuits to whip restaurants and food companies into line, along with advocacy of new federal laws and federal taxes on soft drinks and alcoholic beverages, has raised hackles.

QSR Magazine