FDA Wants to Update Definition of ‘Healthy’ Claim on Food
WASHINGTON, D.C. (WJON News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is proposing updating the criteria for when foods can be labeled with the claim 'healthy' on their packaging.
Under the proposed definition change, in order to be labeled with the 'healthy' claim, the products would need to contain a certain amount of food from at least one of the basic food groups or subgroups like fruits, vegetables, dairy, etc.
Also, the food would have to adhere to specific limits on things like saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars.
So, for example, a cereal would need to contain 3/4 ounces of whole grains and contain no more than 1 gram of saturated fat, 230 milligrams of sodium, and 2.5 grams of added sugars.
The FDA is also in the process of studying and exploring the development of a symbol that manufacturers could use to show that their product meets the 'healthy' claim criteria.
In the future, they'd also like to develop a front-of-packaging labeling system to quickly and more easily see nutrition information. And, they want to lower the amount of sodium that is currently in our food system.
The government says more than 80 percent of people in the U.S. arent' eating enough vegetables, fruit and dairy. And most people consume too much added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium.