The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ordered Vitaburncoffee.com to cease making claims about significant weight loss, energy boosting and cardiovascular and digestive health for its green coffee food supplements.
Claims included, "How To Lose At Least 2 Stone of Stomach Fat in Just 1 Month With These 2 Healing Diet Cleanses That Celebrities Use”.
Another stated, "Removes 'Sludge' from the Walls of the Colon”.
Such claims are not permitted under European Union health claim laws which the ASA noted in its ruling, especially in regard to specific weight loss statements.
“The claims must not appear again in their current form,” ruled the ASA.
“We told vitaburncoffee.com not to make health claims unless they were authorised on the EU Register and not to state a rate or amount of weight loss. We also told them to ensure that marketing communications were obviously identifiable as such.”
In June the ASA ruled against DCG Unlimited-owned greencoffeemaxx.com for making unsubstantiated weight loss claims.
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.