Washington—In light of evolving nutrition research, forthcoming “Nutrition Facts” label final rules, and a citizen petition, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said this week it believes “now is an opportune time” to re-evaluate regulations concerning nutrient content claims, generally, including the term “healthy.”
The agency said it plans to solicit public comment on these issues “in the near future.”
FDA made the comments in a statement it issued Tuesday on its actions on the labeling of KIND products. In March of 2015, FDA had issued a warning letter to KIND LLC because the agency said the labels and labeling of KIND’s products bore a variety of nutrient content claims but the products did not meet the requirements to make such claims.
FDA issued a closeout letter to KIND last month after an evaluation of the corrective actions taken by the company in response to the 2015 warning letter. Some of KIND’s corrective actions included removing and amending certain nutrient content claims on product labels and labeling, as appropriate, FDA said. FDA concluded that KIND satisfactorily addressed the violations contained in the warning letter.
Following receipt of the closeout letter, KIND requested confirmation that it could use the phrase “healthy and tasty” only in text clearly presented as its corporate philosophy, where it isn’t represented as a nutrient content claim, and does not appear on the same display panel as nutrient content claims or nutrition information.
In its discussions with KIND, FDA understood the company’s position as wanting to use “healthy and tasty” as part of its corporate philosophy, as opposed to using “healthy” in the context of a nutrient content claim, FDA evaluated the label as a whole and has indicated that in this instance “it does not object.”
Last December, KIND had submitted a citizen petition requesting that FDA update its existing requirements related to food labeling.
FDA’s current regulations still require that the majority of foods featuring a “healthy” nutrient content claim meet “low fat” and “low saturated fat” standards regardless of their nutrient density, KIND noted.
“This is despite the fact that current science no longer supports those standards,” KIND pointed out.
