Dive Brief:
- The FDA issued new guidelines for “healthy” food that vary based on the product type, with a baseline nutrient density for each. All foods that can be labeled as “healthy” bolster the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans. However, there is a limit for the amount of less beneficial nutrients — including added sugars, sodium and saturated fats — a food item with the claim can have.
- Under the new guidelines, something that is “healthy” needs to have the equivalent of a serving of fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy or protein foods as indicated in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Raw, whole fruits and vegetables automatically can bear the claim. There is a scale for different kinds of prepared products that has a nutrient requirement and percentage limits for the recommended daily intakes of added sugars, sodium and saturated fats.
- This definition, which has been six years in the making, is a comprehensive and multifaceted way to handle the label claim, which many consumers would readily accept as an indicator that a food item is unequivocally good for them.
Dive Insight:
This definition has been in the works for a long time. “Healthy” was first given a regulated definition in 1994, but it focused heavily on fat content. After FDA asked Kind to remove the “healthy” claim from its labels in 2015 because of fat content — which came from the nuts in the company’s bars — the company formally petitioned for an update to its regulations. Under the old definition of “healthy,” naturally occurring fat content would prevent nuts, salmon and avocado from bearing that label.
In 2016, FDA reversed its stance on the “healthy” claim on Kind bars and announced it would work toward redefining the term “healthy” for food labeling purposes.
There was a public hearing on the issue in 2017, with many experts asking FDA to broaden the definition to apply to the full scope of what consumers are looking for in nutrition. More than 1,100 comments were left on a Federal Register docket. Weeks after tendering his resignation as FDA commissioner in March 2019, Scott Gottlieb said at an event that the definition would come out that summer.
In 2020, the USDA came out with new parameters for “healthy” products. However, this represents about 23% of what consumers eat; FDA regulates about 78% of the nation’s food supply.
A bit of progress toward a definition was implied in March when FDA announced it would conduct consumer studies to find a regulated, voluntary front-of-pack symbol to denote a “healthy” product. When the department announced the forthcoming studies, it said the “healthy” symbol could be used for any item that met its current definition of the term, though it makes sense for the revamped definition to come out at the same time, since less-than-healthy products including sugary cereals and pudding cups met the former definition’s standard.
