Nutrition professor and food author Marion Nestle says the FDA dropped the hammer on the promoters of “snortable Coco Loko … cocoa powder infused with caffeine, ginkgo, taurine, and guarani.” Coco Loko and a second product called Lean Legal Syrup were being marketed “as alternatives to illicit street drugs.” The warning letter tells the marketers to stop selling the products as dietary supplements and “immediately cease marketing violative drug products to U.S. consumers.”
Writing on her Food Politics blog, Nestle says the website for the products “seems to have disappeared.” In its Dec. 11 letter, the FDA says Coco Loko is not a dietary supplement because it is snorted, or in the FDA’s words, inhaled intranasally, rather than eaten.
“Snorting cocoa powder? Really? Not a good idea (even though no calories that way),” wrote Nestle.
Lean Legal Syrup contains doxylamine, which can cause adverse reactions among some people, though it is not listed on the label, said the FDA.
To read the FDA warning letter, click here.