UC symposium examines nutrition claims printed on food packages The label of RyKrisp crackers tells buyers it’s “A good source of fiber.” A package of frozen sweet potatoes says the product is an “Excellent source of vitamin A.” V8 juice cans note that the beverage provides a “Full serving of vegetables.” With U.S. Food and Drug Administration rules and enforcement in place, consumers can confidently use these types of nutrition messages on food and dietary supplements when making decisions about their purchases, according to speakers at a symposium in May by the UC Davis Robert Mondavi Institute’s Center for Fruit and Vegetable Quality. The symposium focused on the criteria that must be met to make health and nutrition claims and sought to clarify product label, advertising and Web pages that have information about fruit, vegetables and products made from produce. “Commodity groups are increasingly interested in labeling and advertising their products’ contributions to good health,” said Diane Barrett, director of the Center for Fruit and Vegetable Quality and coordinator of the conference. “Representatives from a variety of both fresh and processed produce commodity groups – such as those whose members are producing blueberries, citrus fruit, kiwifruit, tomatoes and others – attended to get information about sharing health claims with the public.” Symposium speakers said businesses have found that claims related to nutrition and health on food packages prompt shoppers to buy the products and such claims are carefully regulated by the FDA to protect the public. Nutrition Labeling and Education Act allows for heath and nutrient claims UC Davis professor of nutrition emeritus Barbara Schneeman is director of the FDA’s Office of Nutrition, Labeling, and Dietary Supplements. She said the 1990 Nutrition Labeling and Education Act allowed for health and nutrient content claims in order to assist consumers in maintaining healthful dietary practices, protect consumers from unfounded or misleading claims, provide a level playing field for use of claims in packaging and to encourage innovation of nutritionally improved foods. The agency regulates dietary claims in four categories:
To use a health claim, manufacturers and grower groups petition FDA, and the agency reviews all available scientific evidence to determine if it supports the claim. Schneeman said the FDA published its draft guidance in 2007 on the review system it uses to evaluate scientific evidence. Structure/function claims are a type of nutrition support statement that are commonly found on dietary supplements. These claims are statements about maintaining health and may not suggest that the food helps in the diagnosis, prevention, cure, treatment or mitigation of a disease or health-related condition. Schneeman said that two years ago, the FDA mailed warning letters to an array of companies producing, marketing or distributing cherry, blueberry, pomegranate and apple products. Various claims on their packages asserted that the fruit helps fight cancer, heart disease and diabetes, provides relief for arthritis, gout, migraine headaches and fibromyalgia, and treats Alzheimer’s disease and macular degeneration. “These claims could cause the products to be considered unapproved new drugs,” Schneeman said. “Different requirements must be met for a product to be approved as a drug.” San Francisco attorney Leslie Krasny, who works directly with businesses seeking to make legal dietary claims on food products, said at the symposium that the FDA gives the greatest weight to well-designed human studies when considering whether a health claim is allowable. During her presentation, she reviewed “quantitative claims,” in which the company states on the package, for example, the amount of calories per serving, the fact that there are no trans fats in a serving, and antioxidants are in the product. “Quantitative information can be declared as long as it isn’t false or misleading,” Krasny said. Fruits and Veggies-More Matters While labels and advertising with nutrition information can be helpful, nutrition scientist and executive director of the soon-to-be completed Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, Clare Hasler, said at the symposium that, in terms of fruits and vegetables, “more matters.” “Fruits & Veggies-More Matters” is the slogan adopted by the Centers for Disease Control to replace “5 a day.” “There is a strong link between increased fruit and vegetable consumption and a decrease in cancer,” Hasler said. The 1992 Food Guide Pyramid recommended five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables per day. The updated 2005 My Pyramid, reflecting the latest nutrition research, recommends 9 to 13 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. However, Hasler noted that, as evidence supporting the healthfulness of fruit and vegetable consumption has mounted over the last decade, their slice of the typical American diet has grown smaller. In 1994, American men and women ate, on average, 3.43 servings of fruits and vegetables daily; in 2005, the number was 3.24, according to research by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention. “It is very sad,” Hasler said. “Hopefully it will turn around. (June 2008) |
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Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California. All contents November 07, 2009 Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. |
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