ASA Adjudication on Quaker Trading Ltd

Ad

A TV ad, for Quaker Oats, stated "By the time we reach 35 one in two of us has raised cholesterol … Quaker Oats contain a soluble fibre called beta glucan which naturally helps to remove cholesterol from the body …" Text at the bottom of the screen stated "Oats can help reduce cholesterol as part of a diet low in saturated fat and a healthy lifestyle."

Issue

A viewer complained that the claim "Quaker Oats contain a soluble fibre called beta glucan which naturally helps to remove cholesterol from the body" was misleading and challenged whether it could be substantiated.

BCAP TV Code

Response

Quaker Trading Ltd (Quaker) said their substantiation for the claim had been reviewed by the The Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centres (BACC) external nutritional consultant.  They said initially they had planned to use the expression "naturally soaks up cholesterol" but the consultant had suggested rewording to "helps naturally remove cholesterol".  They claimed that the blood cholesterol lowering properties of oats were well documented and that a published meta-analysis clearly demonstrated the strength of the evidence.  They pointed out that health claims for oats and blood cholesterol lowering had been approved in the UK, USA and Sweden lending support to the relationship between oat consumption and lowering of blood cholesterol.  

Quaker explained that one of the major uses of cholesterol in the body was in the synthesis of bile acids in the liver, which were secreted as bile into the intestine where they were used to help digest fat.  The bile acids are mostly but re-absorbed from the lower intestine and then recycled to the liver.  They said oats contained a soluble fibre called beta glucan and that it was postulated, and supported by studies examining the effect of beta glucan on bile acid excretion, that beta glucan bound to bile acids in the intestine and resulted in a greater than normal excretion from the body.  Cholesterol in the body was then used to make new bile acids in the liver, so helping to lower cholesterol levels in the blood.  Quaker acknowledged that some investigators had postulated that an increase in bile acid excretion might not explain the whole lipid lowering effect of oat soluble fibre, although the considerable effect on bile acid excretion observed in some carefully controlled studies strongly supported the importance of that mechanism.  They listed additional ways in which oats might lower cholesterol levels beyond binding and removal of cholesterol-rich bile acids.  In order to reflect the potentially multi-faceted beneficial effect of oats, they said they used the expression "helps naturally remove cholesterol from your body", which they believed was fully supported by available scientific evidence.  They added that, although the claim was a prcis of the way oats worked, they did not feel it was misleading, but rather allowed them to present the cholesterol lowering benefit of oats to consumers in a concise, understandable and engaging manner.

The BACC endorsed Quaker's argument that there was sufficient evidence to support the claim.  They confirmed that their nutritional consultant had reviewed the substantiation and had commented that the way in which beta glucan worked was still not completely understood but one factor was the binding of bile salts in the gut, which were then excreted, and that cholesterol in the body was then used to make new bile salts, so resulting in lower levels in the blood.  The consultant had advised against using the phrase "naturally soaks up" because in the context of the ad it seemed to imply the direct removal of cholesterol from the blood, and had suggested rewording to "Oats contain a soluble fibre called beta glucan which helps naturally remove  cholesterol  from your body".

As substantiation for the claim, Quaker provided their own Cholesterol Fact Book and a document listing reference sources for each of the claims in the ad.  They listed two published articles which they believed supported the claim that the mechanism behind the cholesterol lowering effect of oats was the increased bile acid excretion mediated by the soluble fibre beta glucan.  

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA noted Quaker stated in their substantiation document, which referred to the original "soaks up" claim, that it was acknowledged in the scientific literature that beta glucan caused increased excretion of cholesterol within bile acids.  We also noted they felt that the available scientific evidence justified the claim "helps naturally remove cholesterol from your body".  We noted that the first article listed by Quaker had investigated whether oat beta glucan was responsible for the increased bile acid excretion previously observed with oat-fibre diets.  It concluded that "beta-glucan mediates an increase in bile acid excretion which most probably explains the effect of oat fiber [sic] in lowering serum lipids".  The second article was a meta-analysis of trials investigating the relationship between consumption of oats and blood cholesterol levels.  The meta-analysis demonstrated "that there is a dose response between the level of beta-glucan soluble fibre from whole oats and the level of reduction in blood total and LDL cholesterol".

We noted Quaker referenced the Joint Health Claims Initiative's (JHCI) assessment of a generic claim submission in relation to oat beta glucan and cholesterol reduction.  We noted the JHCI Expert Committee's conclusion that "sufficient evidence exists to substantiate a generic health claim in relation to oats, but not isolated oat beta-glucan", and that there was "substantial evidence for a cholesterol lowering effect of oats, but not that any particular component(s) was responsible."   We also noted, however, Quaker cited the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) who concluded that "the type of soluble fiber found in whole oats, i.e. beta glucan soluble fiber, is primarily responsible for the association between consumption of whole oats ... and an observed lowering of blood cholesterol levels."  The FDA went on to state "the agency has carefully reviewed the comments and evidence on the issue of the significance of [beta]-glucan in the oat products and is persuaded that [beta]-glucan soluble fiber is the primary, but not the only, component in whole oats that affects serum lipids."

We noted Quaker oats contained at least 0.75 g of beta glucan per serving, which was the amount required by the JHCI to enable an oat/cholesterol lowering claim to be made (although at the time the JHCI Expert Committee assessed the generic claim submission it was not satisfied that there was enough evidence for a cholesterol lowering effect of isolated oat beta glucan).  We obtained expert advice.  Our expert drew our attention to additional evidence which demonstrated the cholesterol lowering effect of isolated beta glucan that had not been available at the time the JHCI considered the matter.  He considered that, although other ingredients of oats might contribute to the effect, there was sufficient evidence to support a cholesterol lowering effect of beta glucan.  We considered that the totality of evidence supported the proposed action of beta glucan in increasing the excretion of cholesterol in bile salts.  We concluded that the claim "helps to remove cholesterol from the body" was unlikely to mislead.

We investigated the ad under CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rules 5.1 (Misleading advertising) and 8.3.1 (Accuracy in food advertising) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action required.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Broadcast)