LITIGATION: The FDA Gets Fresh

What is the difference between a glass of orange juice straight from the fruit and a glass concocted from water and frozen concentrate? According to consumer-product giant Procter & Gamble, nothing. For a year, P&G has hyped its Citrus Hill orange juice by dubbing it "Fresh Choice" on containers that acknowledge in less splashy lettering that Citrus Hill is "from concentrate." The Food and Drug Administration, insisting that fresh means fresh, has spent the past four months seeking changes in the product's label that Cincinnati-based P&G refused to make without a guarantee that competitors would be required to meet the same standards.

Last week recently appointed FDA commissioner David Kessler made it plain that he intended to enforce the label laws: U.S. marshals descended on a warehouse outside Minneapolis and impounded 24,000 half-gallon cartons of Citrus Hill, an unusual action considering the prominence of the brand name and its manufacturer. P&G's response: a sudden agreement to remove the word fresh from the disputed orange juice containers. Notes a satisfied FDA official: "We've got a different commissioner. He is saying we're not a paper tiger."