The FDA is updating its definition of 'healthy' food claims, focusing on nutrient-rich foods and eliminating loopholes that allowed for the labeling of less nutritious products as 'healthy'.
The Food and Drug Administration is changing the way food companies can claim their products are 'healthy.' Fortified white bread is out, and fatty fish like salmon is in. Most everything in the grocer’s produce section — whole fruits and vegetables — would qualify under the new rule issued Thursday. Other nutrient-rich foods, such as whole grains, dairy, eggs, beans, lentils, seafood, lean meat, nuts and seeds also pass the test as long as they have limited added sugar, salt and saturated fat.
Frozen and canned fruits and vegetables are included in the new 'healthy' category. It's an attempt to help shoppers in other aisles confused by nutrition fact labels that don’t give any real-world guidance as to whether one product is better than another. 'Now, people will be able to look for the ‘healthy’ claim to help them find foundational, nutritious foods for themselves and their families,' FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, wrote in a media statement. Nutrition experts were largely encouraged by the change. “It’s a terrific advance,” said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. “For the first time, FDA will be judging foods not based on a handful of negative nutrients like calories or fat or salt, but on whether the food has healthy ingredients.” The previous rule set in 1994 had a cap on total fat, which excluded products with heart-healthy fat, such as avocados. Products could also qualify if they had at least 10% of the daily value for certain vitamins, calcium, iron, protein or fiber. Manufacturers found a loophole. “That led companies to fortify junk food and call them healthy,” Mozaffarian said. Fruit juice could be labeled as “healthy” if they had enough vitamin C, for example, despite a tremendous amount of added sugar. The new regulation eliminates that criteri
FDA Food Labels Healthy Eating Nutrition Regulations
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