The US Food and Drug Administration is proposing changes to the nutrition standards that foods must meet before they can carry the “healthy” label on their packages. The proposal comes as the White House held its Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health and released a new national strategy to end hunger, and improve nutrition and physical activity.
About 5% of foods are labeled as being healthy, which is a regulated claim. Foods that make the claim have limits on individual nutrients like fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium, and they must contain minimum amounts of vitamins A and C, calcium, iron, protein and dietary fiber. The FDA says that since the claim was first defined in 1994, nutrition and dietary science has changed, making the term outdated.
The proposed criteria change how the term “healthy” would be defined. Instead of counting only individual nutrients, healthy claims would also take into account the variety of nutrients present in foods, as well as the nutrient density. Contain a certain, meaningful amount of food from at least one of the food groups or subgroups — such as fruits, vegetables or dairy — recommended by the Dietary Guidelines. Adhere to specific limits for certain nutrients, such as saturated fat, sodium and added sugars. The threshold is based on a percent of the daily value for the nutrient and varies depending on the food and food group. The limit for sodium, for example, is 10% of the DV.