The US advertising self-regulatory body, the National Advertising Division (NAD), has found that a marketing claim made by Alice Mushrooms was not substantiated.
The brand produces functional mushroom-infused chocolates, including bars that promise support for libido, mood, deep sleep and productivity.
The firm was founded back in 2022 and raised an oversubscribed $8m in Series A funding led by NewBound Venture Capital with support from Unilever Ventures and Tiesto.
The regulator said that, in its review of Alice Mushrooms’ Zen-X chocolates, it examined whether the evidence supporting studies of L-theanine, kanna and saffron was sufficient to support the product's broader health claims.
The functional mushroom brand claims that its products provide health benefits including energy, libido support and deep sleep.
Zen-X touts its calming properties, specifically that “cool, calm and collected is one delicious bite away.”
The mushroom ingredient firm had argued that the ingredient-level evidence collectively provided a reasonable basis for its claims, but NAD determined that the studies Alice Mushrooms had submitted on L-theanine and kanna did not adequately demonstrate that these ingredients would produce the benefits implied by "cool, calm and collected," nor the related "clear-headed" claim.
It said that the studies used to substantiate a claim must be sufficiently relevant to the specific benefit being advertised.
However, NAD found that a clinical study investigating saffron provided support for a narrower health claim.
The study used the same dose of saffron as that contained in Alice Mushrooms’ product and reported statistically significant results for measures including tension, stress and vigour.
NAD therefore recommended that Alice Mushrooms modify the remaining Zen-X claim to make clear that the health benefit is limited to saffron, rather than implying that the broader product claim is supported by the evidence for all three ingredients.
Alice Mushrooms has now voluntarily discontinued its challenged Brainstorm claims and all but one of the challenged Zen-X claims and agreed to comply with NAD’s recommendations.
In its advertiser statement, Alice Mushrooms stated that it "will comply with NAD's recommendations.”
