Dive Brief:
- The FDA has responded to concerns about outdated standards for what foods should be allowed to carry labels claiming them to be "healthy," which tended to favor low-fat but sugary products such as toaster pastries over nutrient dense products with inherent fat content such as almonds.
- Given that nutrition science has evolved, the FDA agreed the definition for “healthy” needs to be updated to consider factors such as type of fat and added sugar.
- The improved standards for "healthy" labeling are intended not just to assist consumers in making better choices, officials said, but to sway food companies toward product innovation and reformulation, and provide a better balance of “healthy” choices for consumers.
Dive Insight:
Two major issues stand out with the FDA's announcement. One is that the agency does not have "all the answers" on what exactly the new definition should be, as stated by Dr. Douglas Balentine, of the FDA's Office of Nutrition and Food Labeling. To help remedy that, it is asking for public comment on what "healthy" should mean from a nutrition perspective, what people expect it to mean and how they use the term.
Balentine said officials will also hold public forums with consumers and stakeholders, and warned the process "may take some time," with no timetable offered. It was 10 months ago the original petition for an update, led by the KIND snack company, was brought to the FDA.
The FDA added that during the process, it would also start evaluating how to modernize other food claims. The move follows the FDA's push earlier this year to modernize nutrition information labels, which is slated to be required from most manufacturers beginning in mid-2018
The second matter will be how a new definition for "healthy" could impact not only nutrition labeling, but the healthcare and wellness industries as well.
Among the questions being weighed by the FDA are what the public benefits are of defining the term, and how the new definition can be leveraged toward improving public health.