‘Drinkable sunscreen?’ Prosecutors say California company misled consumers

A California company that marketed and sold a “drinkable sunscreen” was ordered to pay $42,500 to the state after being accused of making misleading claims about the product.

The company, Dermatology Industry Inc., promoted a product called UVO, according to a court judgment issued by the state. Prosecutors said the company promoted the product as a “drinkable sunscreen” and implied that consumers who drank the beverage would be protected from sun damage, according to a news release from California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office.

The company was ordered to pay the settlement after the state attorney general’s office — with assistance from attorneys general in Texas and other states — investigated the product’s claims. According to court documents, the attorney general’s office concluded that the company’s claims about the product “were not properly substantiated” and were “false or misleading in nature.”

The settlement is subject to court approval, the news release states.

“Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States with 4.3 million Americans being treated for it each year,” Bonta said in the news release. “We know that one of the best ways to protect ourselves is to regularly apply sunscreen when we’re out in the sun. We may want a shortcut, but the truth of the matter is: There’s no evidence that alternative sunscreen products like UVO’s so-called ‘drinkable sunscreen’ provide protection.”

The company did not admit to the state’s accusations, saying that it “genuinely believed that its UVO product was based on competent and reliable scientific evidence,” court documents said. However, the company still agreed to pay the settlement, court documents said.

The company must also provide written notice to the state within 60 days of starting to market or sell dietary supplements or other items related to sun protection, the attorney general’s news release said.

In 2016, the owner and CEO of the company, Bobby Awadalla, said that UVO beverages contained a mix of vitamins and dietary supplements that “can protect and repair human skin from the sun’s harmful UV rays,” Food Navigator reported.

Awadalla said he believed the drinkable supplement would help people use sun protection more regularly, but also said that the company encouraged customers to “use multiple forms of sun protection,” the outlet reported.

“Our goal will never be to replace sunscreen,” Awadalla told the outlet.

But according to the attorney general’s office, the small Irvine-based company also said that the beverage could provide “3-5 hours of sun protection from head to toe including your eyes,” that it was “the first drinkable supplement to provide sun protection,” and that “if you drink UVO you will have baseline protection that will help minimize the likelihood of burning even if you forget to use sunscreen,” the news release said.

Awadalla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.

“You’ve got to wear your sunscreen, not drink it,” Bonta said in the release.