A new definition of ‘healthy’ claims made on food packages is being considered by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a bid to help improve diet and reduce chronic disease.
The proposed change would bring the definition of the ‘healthy’ claim in line with current nutritional science, the updated Nutrition Facts label and the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the FDA said on 28 September.
The FDA’s proposal followed the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health and the publication of the related national strategy, which aims to end hunger, improve nutrition and physical activity, reduce diet-related diseases and close disparity gaps by 2030.
The proposed rule would update the ‘healthy’ claim definition to provide a clearer explanation of how all the nutrients in various food groups contribute and may work together to create healthy dietary patterns and improve health. Under the proposed definition for the updated ‘healthy’ claim, which is based on current nutrition science, more foods that are part of a healthy dietary pattern and recommended by the Dietary Guidelines would be eligible to use the claim on their labelling including nuts and seeds, higher fat fish (such as salmon), certain oils and water.
Under the proposed definition, in order to be labelled with the ‘healthy’ claim on food packaging, the products would need to:
- Contain a certain meaningful amount of food from at least one of the food groups or subgroups (such as fruit, vegetable and dairy) recommended by the Dietary Guidelines.
- Adhere to specific limits for certain nutrients, such as saturated fat, sodium and added sugars. The threshold for the limits is based on a percentage of the Daily Value (DV) for the nutrient and varies depending on the food and food group. The limit for sodium is 10% of the DV per serving (230mg/serving).
For example, a cereal would need to contain 21.2g of whole grains and contain no more than 1g of saturated fat, 230mg of sodium and 2.5g of added sugars.
In addition to empowering consumers, the FDA said the updated definition could help foster a healthier food supply if it led manufacturers to reformulate (such as adding more vegetables or whole grains to meet criteria) or develop products that met the updated definition.
