A look back: Under, food products with the label “healthy” can not contain more than one gram of saturated fat per serving and can not receive more than 15% of their calorie content from saturated fat. Now, the FDA has not only affirmed that KIND can use “healthy” on its labels again, but also confirmed that it intends to reevaluate the regulatory definition of the term. Tuesday also marks the final day of the “open comment” period in which the FDA is soliciting input from the public and the industry regarding the use of the term “natural” on labels, and what the definition of “natural” should be. “The current regulations reflect more simplistic beliefs during the 1980s and 1990s that shunned fat and pushed carbohydrates as good for you”, according to a news report published by LA Times.
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Other health advocates point out that the really healthy foods in supermarkets have no labels at all, and don’t come in packages.
Kind in February hired public affairs powerhouse Glover Park Group for lobbying help on FDA issues. This is very significant, but it is specific to the KIND warning letter. “It’s time that the FDA reviewed the rules for health claims, and this is a good nudge to do so”, he said. The difference is that “natural” was left open to food marketers, because it didn’t have an FDA definition. And, the FDA’s regulations limit how much fat we should eat.
In December a year ago, Kind filed a petition urging the FDA to update its requirements related to the term healthy to emphasise the importance of eating “real foods” and “nutrient-dense ingredients” as part of healthy eating patterns.
In seeking to better understand the regulation in question, KIND found that snack foods labeled “healthy” as a nutrient content claim can’t have more than 3 g. of total fat or 1 g. of saturated fat per serving.
General counsel for KIND Healthy Snacks, Justin Mervis said, “We’re all about whole ingredients, about what foods people are putting into their bodies – as opposed to fat levels and sodium levels”. “And high in fat had a pejorative context to it, “Sherman says”.
Justin Prochnow told Bloomberg BNA May 10 in an interview he thinks the agency’s actions will stave off some suits challenging “healthy” on food labels.
It will serve as a test case for the broader issue of outdated regulations around nutrition claims, said Dr. Walter Willett, nutrition professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The company later asked for a re-evaluation of the term saying the rule prevents avocados and salmon from being labeled “healthy”.
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In an update, the FDA said it relented and is letting Kind keep “healthy” on its packaging. As Quartz reported in November, the Sugar Association, Sara Lee Corporation, and the Grocery Manufacturers Association all have filed citizens petitions with the FDA over qualifications for the word “natural”. And the KIND hooplah last March added to the conversation about prioritizing real, whole foods-and that includes items like nuts and avocados.
