United States: The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday issued new rules on what it means to label a food product ”healthy,” changes that restored the relevance of the term in an era of shifting nutrition and that imposed stricter standards for the amount of saturated fat, sugar, and salt than those in the earlier standard.
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The attempt to minimize the fuss over what is now a thirty-year-old term started a lobbying battle over what foods were deemed to be healthy and whether the FDA was about to infringe on First Amendment rights by trying to define the word “healthy.”
The FDA stated on Thursday that its policy, which is mentioned in a final rule, was described as a way to “empower consumers” by giving them help in quickly spotting nutritious food at grocery stores.
Furthermore, the rule also states that it was part of the agency’s work “to help reduce the burden of diet-related chronic disease,” the New York Times reported.
According to Dr. Robert Califf, the F.D.A. commissioner, “It’s critical for the future of our country that food be a vehicle for wellness.”
“Improving access to nutrition information is an important public health effort the F.D.A. can undertake to help people build healthy eating patterns,” Califf added.
The 318-page rule specifies stringent rules regarding what food manufacturers can declare ‘healthy,’ or other descriptions, ‘healthful’ or ‘healthiest,’ for instance.
For example, a portion of 50 grams of a dairy product can contain no more than the 5 percent RAE of an individual’s daily sugar intake and the 10 percent RAE of an individual’s daily intake of salt and saturated fat.
The same would apply to fruits, grains, vegetables, meat, and so on. The revised would cover some processed and packaged food products and several products that are not part of the present definition of ‘healthy,’ such as nuts and seeds, salmon, some types of oil, and water.
Kennedy Jr., who intends to begin confirmation hearings this week to become secretary of the nation’s leading health agency, ran on Trump’s message promise of improving the health of the nation using better nutrition.
He also accused the food industry of serving children with artificial additives and ultra-processed foods that are toxic.
Where the F.D.A.’s new rule is a small but tangible step that does not alter anything in food production, the effort provides a low-level taste of just how challenging even small-scale attempts at changing the food supply can be in Washington and the resistance Mr. Kennedy might encounter from the food and agriculture lobby.
According to Peter Lurie, a former F.D.A. official and the executive director of the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit advocacy group, “If the incoming administration is truly serious about making Americans eat healthier, then they should embrace the power of food labeling,” the New York Times reported.