Green Coffee Max wakes up and smells the weight loss ad ban
One ad was a testimonial style news story with specific weight loss claims while the other made claims like, "lose a ton of weight quickly".
Both were ruled unauthorised with the greencoffeemaxx.com holding company, DCG Unlimited, told to only make approved claims that appear on the official EU health claims register.
As about 1500 botanical-based health claims are on hold due to discussions at EU level about the kind of science required to validate their claims, green coffee does not as yet appear on that official EU health claims register.
Caffeine claims have won positive opinions from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), but not for weight loss, and the positive claims have not entered the EU register as there are concerns among some EU nations that their approval may encourage over-consumption of caffeine.
The ASA said: “The ad made various health claims relating to weight loss, including ‘achieve maximum weight loss’, ‘encourages weight loss’ and ‘lose a ton of weight quickly’.”
“In the absence of evidence that these claims were authorised on the EU Register we concluded that they breached the Code.”
Aside from telling DGC not to run the ads again, the ASA also rapped the company for failing to respond to its queries about the campaigns and the claims being made.
Flat Belly Green Coffee Diet
The testimonial-style ad appeared on the http://the-healthy-insider.com website and featured a woman who used ‘Green Coffee Maxx’ and a fortified coffee product called ‘Liposom’ together over four weeks.
Text stated: “The idea behind combining the products is that while the Green Coffee Maxx encourages weight loss and increases energy, the coffee speeds up your metabolism and allows your body to work and burn calories more efficiently.”
The testimonial referenced claims on the Green Coffee Maxx like:
- “Accelerates Fat Loss”
- “4 Times More Weight Loss Than Diet And Exercise”
- “Boosts Energy”
- “Potent With Amino Acids”
.A further claim stated: "One blogger claims to have lost over 35 lbs in 40 days using the Green Coffee & Liposom combo."
The ASA said, “health claims that referred to a rate or amount of weight loss” were banned for food or food supplements.
