Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer is suing a company CEO for allegedly selling radish paste that she advertised as a way to avoid contracting COVID-19.
Angela Oh’s Insan Healing claimed the paste protected lungs against coronavirus.
Feuer’s, whose office continues to prosecute companies that “prey on people desperate to avoid the virus,” said Friday that misleading practices amid a pandemic must stop.
“In this public health emergency, consumers are entitled to accurate information,” Feuer said in a news release Friday. “Their lives may depend on it.”
KNATURE CO., Inc, doing business as Insan Healing, claimed their radish paste is “a must-have product for the protection and prevention of COVID-19,” that can “keep your lungs and respiratory strong.”
The company gave the false impression that the paste is a real drug for sale in California and that it was a federally approved countermeasure against coronavirus. But the Food and Drug Administration’s drug registration database has no drugs registered by Insan Healing, officials said.
Feuer asked consumers to avoid products that promised to treat or protect against COVID-19, as there are no products approved by the FDA that serve as medical countermeasures.
The lawsuit filed by the city attorney’s office against Oh and her company seeks a permanent injunction to stop the sale of radish paste, as well as civil penalties of $2,500 for each violation of the California Business and Professions Code and restitution to each of the customers who bought the product.