FDA Will Give Definition of ‘Healthy’ This Summer

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration plans to release a new definition for the term “healthy” this summer, Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Friday at an event held by the Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, D.C.

The new guidelines will be closely watched by food companies that are eager to market their products as healthy. Consumers have largely gravitated toward the category in recent years -- and away from items that are high in sugars and processed ingredients.

The agency announced in September 2016 that it would start collecting public comments on the definition, and it later extended the comment period. It ultimately received over a thousand submissions. The FDA also issued guidance clarifying which so-called healthy products could be subject to federal enforcement.

The current definition says the term can only be used if the product meets conditions for content of fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and other nutrients. Different levels are allowed depending on the item.

That regulation is from the early nineties, however, and the science behind dietary recommendations has changed significantly since the decade’s low-fat focus, as nut-bar maker Kind LLC argued in a Citizen Petition filed in 2015. Foods that are high in fat but nutritious -- like salmon, avocado and nuts -- cannot legally be defined as “healthy” under the current definition, Kind argued.

To contact the reporters on this story: Deena Shanker in New York at dshanker@bloomberg.net;Anna Edney in Washington at aedney@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anne Riley Moffat at ariley17@bloomberg.net, Jonathan Roeder, Timothy Annett

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