As reported in several places, after what some consider two-years of radio silence, Scott Gottlieb, FDA Commissioner, addressed the Consumer Federation of America’s National Food Policy Conference in Washington DC March on 30th 2018, with a speech outlining broad changes to FDA food policy. The full video and text transcription is available on CSPAN here
From opening about heart disease and cancer, Mr. Gottlieb quickly reminds us that “we can’t lose sight of the public health basics like better diet, more exercise and smoking prevention and cessation.”
He goes on to say ” We know today people are eating too much food fighting to make cases there still a consuming enough of certain nutrients to achieve a balanced diet. We’re keeping all of these considerations in mind as we pursue making an update to the definition of healthy.”
“We will also consider how to depict healthy on the package so that consumers can easily identify it, particularly when they may not have time or the skills exam all the information on the food package. To address this we’ve had discussions about whether there should be a standard icon or symbol for the word healthy that everyone could use on food packages”
“We also plan to seek input on other possible changes to our nutrient content claims ……we are also interested in exploring claims are products that offer food groups which american dies typically fall short of the current recommendations; For example, whole grains, low-fat dairy, fruits and vegetables and healthy oils.”
“[We want]..streamlined process for reviewing qualified health claims we receive from the industry … We need to consider how to enhance the…review process. For instance, we want to be able to triage those requests according to public health significance and to prioritize the review of those that are most meaningful and most science-based. One such example…use qualified health claims linking early peanut introduction to reduce risk of developing peanut allergy.”
“Our intention is to prioritize those qualified health claims in the most likely to have a health benefit and data based on the strongest science…”
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