The Food and Drug Administration released final rules on labeling foods as “healthy,” tightening limits for sugar, sodium and saturated fat.
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday 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 F.D.A. would violate First Amendment protections in trying to define “healthy.”
The F.D.A. 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 text of the rule said it was part of the agency’s work “to help reduce the burden of diet-related chronic diseases.”
“It’s critical for the future of our country that food be a vehicle for wellness,” Dr. Robert Califf, the F.D.A. commissioner, said in a statement. “Improving access to nutrition information is an important public health effort the F.D.A. can undertake to help people build healthy eating patterns.”
The 318-page rule sets forth highly specific guidelines around what food manufacturers can label “healthy” or other terms, like “healthful” or “healthiest.” For instance, a 50-gram serving of a dairy product must contain no more than 5 percent of a person’s daily sugar level and 10 percent 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 food and several items previously excluded from the definition of “healthy,” like nuts, seeds, salmon, some oils and water.
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 J. 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.