It may soon be easier to determine which foods at the grocery story are healthy. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week announced a proposal to change the way foods are classified as being healthy for labeling purposes. It would update the definition for the implied nutrient content claim “healthy” to be consistent with current nutrition science and Federal dietary guidance.
For example, salmon cannot be labeled as healthy because of its high fat content, however, some less healthy food can be labeled as healthy even with high amounts of sugar if they have certain other nutrients.
This old labeling method was introduced in the 1990’s and as the FDA points out in the proposal, nutrition science has improved since then. They suggest the labeling requirements change as well. The proposal says that changing the labeling requirements would put the ‘healthy’ label back in sync with nutritional guidelines. The proposal is now in a 90-day public comment period.
Listen to Sabrina Halvorson’s This Land of Ours program here.
Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.