JÙS By Julie

The FDA has put the squeeze on a Brooklyn-based juice company’s claims that its smoothies, shots, and soups treat everything from hangovers to heart disease. In a recent warning letter to the president of Jus Bar LLC, aka JÙS By Julie, the FDA cited a number of Only drugs can be marketed as having the ability to diagnose, cure, treat, prevent or mitigate a disease, and the only way for a product to gain legit drug status is by getting FDA approval, which means any product that doesn’t get FDA approval can’t say it has the ability to diagnose, cure, treat, prevent or mitigate a disease. on the company’s website. These included:

• “[A]n excellent cure for … hangovers.” (Island Coconut Blended Juice)
• “The addition of heart-healthy cinnamon … protects you from cancer, bacterial infections and neurodegenerative diseases.” (Almond Breeze Blended Juice)
• “Kava is well known for offsetting a number of common life disrupting ailments such as … depression and ADHD.” (Kava Booster Shot)
• “[T]he leek is known for reducing your risk for heart disease, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.” (Hearty Potato Leek Soup)

In addition, the FDA said it was misleading to label three products — Sweet Spin, PB & Jus and Almond Breeze — as “blended juices” because they contain ingredients that are neither a fruit or a vegetable, such as peanut butter and rice milk. Perhaps the creative juices were flowing just a little too much on that one.

Remember, readers, marketing products as having the ability to treat, cure, alleviate the symptoms of, or prevent developing diseases and disorders is simply not permitted by law without FDA approval. If a product really could do all that, then it would be a drug subject to rigorous study and testing to gain the agency’s blessing.

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