The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it is considering the development of a graphic symbol to help consumers identify packaged food products that meet the FDA’s anticipated definition of “healthy.”
The FDA proposes to conduct three research studies to explore consumer responses to a variety of draft front-of-package symbols that manufacturers could voluntarily use on food products as a graphic representation of the nutrient content claim “healthy.”
In 2019 and 2020, the FDA conducted a series of focus groups to test and review proposed literature on front-of-pack nutrition-related symbols and test symbol concepts. The FDA now proposes to conduct two surveys and one experimental survey of 5,000 consumers to explore their responses to the proposed front-of-pack symbols for “healthy.”
As of now the FDA has not released an official definition of the term “healthy” despite announcing in September of 2016 that it was re-examining the term and could release new regulations if a new definition were released. In 1994 the FDA issued the definition of ‘healthy’ Under that regulation, food manufacturers may use the term “healthy” and similar terms such as “health, “healthful,” etc. on food labels if the food meets certain nutritional requirements set by the agency.
In 2019 and 2020, the FDA conducted a series of focus groups to test and review proposed literature on front-of-pack nutrition-related symbols and test symbol concepts. The FDA now proposes to conduct two surveys and one experimental survey of 5,000 consumers to explore their responses to the proposed front-of-pack symbols for “healthy.”
As of now the FDA has not released an official definition of the term “healthy” despite announcing in September of 2016 that it was re-examining the term and could release new regulations if a new definition were released. In 1994 the FDA issued the definition of ‘healthy’ Under that regulation, food manufacturers may use the term “healthy” and similar terms such as “health, “healthful,” etc. on food labels if the food meets certain nutritional requirements set by the agency.