Fallon Currie Consulting

Fallon Currie Consulting calls itself "an international marketing consultancy with offices in London and Switzerland".About, Fallon Currie Consulting website, accessed 23 Mar 2010 It has set up websites, presented as information services for the public, which give positive messages about the controversial food additives aspartame and MSG (see below).
==Reassuring the public about the safety of aspartame==
In 2000 Fallon Currie set up a website, Aspartame Information (http://www.aspartame-info.com), to give information to the public about the controversial artificial sweetener aspartame.REGISTRY WHOIS FOR ASPARTAME-INFO.COM, WhoIs?, accessed 23 March 2010. Screengrab (taken 23 Mar 2010) here
In 2009 Ailbhe Fallon, managing director of Fallon-Currie, who described herself as a spokesperson for Aspartame Information, told FoodNavigator.com that a reassurance about the safety of aspartame from the EFSA "came as no surprise".Sarah Hills, EFSA finds no reason to alter aspartame ADI, FoodNavigator.com, 22-Apr-2009, accessed 23 Mar 2010 EFSA's assurance came in response to a study by the Cesare Maltoni Cancer Research Center of the European Ramazzini Foundation (ERF) published in June 2007 by Soffritti et al. The study's authors concluded that their results confirmed and reinforced their first experimental demonstration of aspartame’s carcinogenicity at a dose level close to the human ADI (acceptable daily intake). They also suggested that carcinogenic effects are increased when lifespan exposure to aspartame begins during foetal life.Soffritti, Morando, et al., Life-Span Exposure to Low Doses of Aspartame Beginning during Prenatal Life Increases Cancer Effects in Rats, Environ Health Perspect (2007). 115:1293-1297. doi:10.1289/ehp.10271Sarah Hills, EFSA finds no reason to alter aspartame ADI, FoodNavigator.com, 22-Apr-2009, accessed 23 Mar 2010 
The EFSA concluded that the findings did not provide sufficient evidence to call into question their classification of aspartame as safe for human consumption.Sarah Hills, EFSA finds no reason to alter aspartame ADI, FoodNavigator.com, 22-Apr-2009, accessed 23 Mar 2010 In a statement defending aspartame to Foodnavigator.com, an EFSA spokesman said: 
:Most of the lymphomas and leukaemias reported in the study appear to have developed in rats showing signs of chronic respiratory disease rather than being caused by their treatment with aspartame.
:The increased incidence of mammary tumours is not considered indicative of a carcinogenic potential since the incidence of mammary tumours in female rats is rather high and varies considerably between carcinogenicity studies.
:Moreover the increased incidence of mammary tumours in female rats reported in the study was not found in the previous ERF study, in which much higher doses of aspartame were tested.Sarah Hills, EFSA finds no reason to alter aspartame ADI, FoodNavigator.com, 22-Apr-2009, accessed 23 Mar 2010
==Reassuring the public about the safety of MSG==
In 2000 Fallon Currie set up a website, the International Glutamate Information ServiceInternational Glutamate Information Service WhoIs?, WhoIs? accessed and screengrab taken 23 Mar 2010 (http://www.glutamate.org/) to provide the public with information on the controversial food flavouring ingredient, monosodium glutamate (MSG). 
The website states:
:Our goal is to provide you with accurate and up-to-date information about glutamate (MSG). There is information about the discovery and taste of glutamate, the role it plays in our food and our bodies and its nutritional benefits.Latest science, International Glutamate Information Service website, accessed 23 Mar 2010
The message is positive and reassuring about the safety of MSG, with featured articles (as of 23 March 2010) such as "Scientific review shows no link between MSG and development of allergic reactions or asthma" and "Savoury taste can help lower blood pressure".Latest science, International Glutamate Information Service website, accessed 23 Mar 2010
The scientific review claiming to show no link between MSG and allergic reactions or asthma contradicts a 1995 report from the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), an independent body of scientists, which found that people with severe, poorly controlled asthma may suffer temporary worsening of asthmatic symptoms after consuming MSG.FDA and Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), FDA Backgrounder August 31, 1995, version placed in web archive Feb 23 2008, accessed in web archive 23 Mar 2010 
And the positive study mentioned by the International Glutamate Information Service as giving rise to the headline about blood pressure is on glutamic acid, a naturally occurring ingredient in vegetables as well as MSG, not on MSG itself.Latest Science, International Glutamate Information Service website, accessed 23 March 2010
==Sponsoring debate on reporting of medical stories==
Fallon Consulting sponsored a Guild of Health Writers debate in 2005 called "Standards in Medical Journalism Are Putting the Public's Health at Risk".Past sponsors, Guild of Health Writers website, accessed 23 Mar 2010Guild of Health Writers Debate Wednesday, 16 February 2005 6.30pm, Guild of Health Writers website, accessed 23 Mar 2010 According to the Guild's website, featured speaker Niall Dickson "criticised the ‘cartoonism of science’ which not only scared people - but in the case of the controversy over MMR also had the potential to kill people".Guild of Health Writers Debate Wednesday, 16 February 2005 6.30pm, Guild of Health Writers website, accessed 23 Mar 2010 The Guild's website does not mention if Dickson had anything to say about reported mortalities from the MMR vaccine itself.Families win lawsuit over MMR vaccine, The Japan Times, March 14, 2003, accessed 3 Mar 2010
And the Guild's website page on the debate quotes Raymond Tallis, Professor of Geriatric Medicine at Manchester University, as follows: "'There’s sufficient garbage being produced to undermine the work of good journalists,' he said. Medicine, he said, was reduced to breakthroughs and scandals, and in the case of the crisis over BSE, he said there was ‘a juvenile preference for conspiracy theory over data’."Guild of Health Writers Debate Wednesday, 16 February 2005 6.30pm, Guild of Health Writers website, accessed 23 Mar 2010 It is unclear as to which aspect of the BSE crisis Tallis believes is a "conspiracy theory". There is no mention of the false reassurances of safety from government and the food industry - and the culture of secrecy that meant the public were not kept informed - at the heart of the BSE crisis.BSE and Secrecy: Implications for the Freedom of Information Bill, Campaign for Freedom of Information, November 10, 2000, accessed 24 Mar 2010
==People==
*Emma Eggleton Account Executive at Fallon Currie Consulting, October 2001 — April 2004 (2 years 7 months) LinkedIn Emma Eggleton, accessed 24 March 2010 
*Ailbhe Fallon, managing director (as at 23 Mar 2010)Sarah Hills, EFSA finds no reason to alter aspartame ADI, FoodNavigator.com, 22-Apr-2009, accessed 23 Mar 2010
*Jamila Jones - former marketing executive at Fallon Currie ConsultingJamila Jones, LinkedIn, screengrab taken 23 Mar 2010
==Funding==
==Clients==
*LycoRed, a company specialising in "nutrient fortifications"LycoRed in Europe - Creating innovative nutrition, Oct-27-2005, LycoRed website, accessed 23 Mar 2010
==Affiliations==
*Associate Parliamentary Food and Health Forum, member in 2009.Associate Parliamentary Food and Health Forum Members, Accessed 24 march 2010
==Contact==
:Address (UK): Fallon Currie Consulting, 29 Bressenden Place, London SW1E 5DDAbout, Fallon Currie Consulting website, accessed 23 Mar 2010
:Phone (UK): + 44 20 7630 6070About, Fallon Currie Consulting website, accessed 23 Mar 2010
:Email:
:Address (Switzerland):Fallon Currie Consulting, Postfach 96, 6318 Walchwil, SwitzerlandAbout, Fallon Currie Consulting website, accessed 23 Mar 2010
:Phone (Switzerland): + 41 41 758 0362About, Fallon Currie Consulting website, accessed 23 Mar 2010
:Website: Unusually, the firm's website is password protected and not open to the general public. http://www.fallon-currie.com/
===Resources===
===Notes===
Category:Lobbying
Category: Food Industry lobby groups
Category: Food lobbyists and PR consultantsCategory:Public relations firms