By Christina Jewett
The Food and Drug Administration late last week updated the definitions of the term “healthy” for labeling on foods, a move that reflected changes in nutrition and that tightened limits on saturated fat, sugar and salt in food that could be sold under that claim.
The effort, while seemingly an inconsequential update to a 30-year-old term, set off a veritable food fight of lobbying over which foods made the cut and whether the FDA would violate First Amendment protections in trying to define “healthy.”
The FDA said Thursday that its policy, outlined in a final rule, was meant to “empower consumers” by helping them quickly spot nutritious food at the grocery store.
“The FDA recognizes that diet-related diseases, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes, are the leading cause of disability and disease in the United States and contribute to America’s status of having the lowest life expectancy amongst large, high-income countries,” Jim Jones, the director of the agency’s food division, said during a news conference. He added, “We also know that food labeling can be a powerful tool for change.”
The 318-page rule sets forth highly specific guidelines around what food manufacturers can label “healthy” or other terms, such as “healthful” or “healthiest.” To make that claim, for instance, a 50-gram serving of a dairy product must contain no more than 5% of a person’s maximum recommended daily sugar level and 10% of a person’s daily salt and saturated fat limit. Similar standards would apply to fruits, grains, vegetables, meat and other foods.
The new definition would include some processed and packaged foods and several items previously excluded from the definition of “healthy,” such as nuts, seeds, salmon, some oils and water. It would also strip the label from other foods, including some yogurts, fruit cups and whole wheat bread products, that are considered too high in sugar or sodium.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is meeting with lawmakers this week to shore up support for his upcoming confirmation hearings to become secretary of the nation’s top health agency, campaigned for President-elect Donald Trump on a message of making the nation healthier through more nutritious food. He criticized the food industry, saying it was poisoning children with artificial additives and ultra-processed foods.
While the FDA’s new rule is an incremental change that will not require any changes in food production, the effort offers a sobering preview for how difficult even small changes to the food supply can be in Washington and the headwinds Kennedy may face from the food and agriculture industries. The rule itself, which is supposed to take effect in 2028, would not be immune from congressional or executive branch meddling, given how late in the Biden administration it was issued.
“If the incoming administration is truly serious about making Americans eat healthier, then they should embrace the power of food labeling,” said Peter Lurie, a former FDA official and the executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit advocacy group.
He said the rule was voluntary in the sense that companies would not need to meet the standards unless they wanted to market food as “healthy.”
There are several ways Congress or the incoming administration could derail the rule. Officials could take executive action to start a process to repeal, suspend or delay it, said Varu Chilakamarri, a partner with the law firm K&L Gates who focuses on administrative law. She also said Congress could pass a disapproval resolution to eliminate a rule within 60 days of its publication in the Federal Register.
The FDA, for now, is plowing ahead. Agency officials said they entered a partnership with the grocery-delivery company Instacart to help consumers find healthy items in an online marketplace. They also said they were working on a logo to help people quickly recognize healthy foods.
Jones also said during the news conference that the agency was working quickly to finalize another proposal: one that would require front-of-package labels that could serve as prominent warnings on foods with high levels of sugar, sodium or fat.
In general, the FDA’s updated rule follows the nutritional science and advice of the nation’s Dietary Guidelines of 2020-2025, which federal agencies issue every five years. A committee of nutrition experts is working on draft guidelines for the next set, which is expected to be released at the end of next year.
Public health advocates saw the rule as an important change.
“The updated definition should give consumers more confidence when they see the ‘healthy’ claim while grocery shopping,” Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, said in a statement Thursday. “And we hope it will motivate food manufacturers to develop new, healthier products that qualify to use the ‘healthy’ claim.”
In 2023, as the proposal was moving forward, the Consumer Brands Association, which represents food makers and others, aired concerns. It called the proposal “overly restrictive” and said it would disqualify a vast majority of nutrient-dense packaged foods.
“We do not believe that FDA sufficiently market tested its proposed regulatory framework to determine how it would work in practice,” the group said in a comment on the proposal.
The association also raised free-speech concerns about the proposal, saying it would violate the First Amendment “by prohibiting truthful, non-misleading labeling claims in an unjustified manner.”
On Thursday, the group redoubled its criticism of the rule, emphasizing its role as “the largest domestic manufacturing employer” and saying the rule leaves out some packaged foods, “despite countless years of industry innovation to provide healthier options.”
“We remain concerned that this government regulation is not based on clear and unambiguous scientific evidence or an in-depth economic analysis that considers all the potential impacts to consumers and the market,” Sarah Gallo, senior vice president of product policy for the association, said in a statement.
The FDA’s rule said that about 5% of foods were currently labeled “healthy.” The estimated benefit of the changes over 20 years is about $686 million, the rule says, based on a calculation using a healthy eating score and death data.
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