It should soon be easier for consumers to tell which foods are “healthy.”
The Food and Drug Administration Thursday updated the criteria food and drink items must meet to merit a “healthy” label on their packaging.
To qualify, they have to have limited amounts of saturated fat, sodium and added sugar and contain foods from the major dietary groups such as fruits, vegetables, protein and dairy.
“We know food labeling can be a powerful tool for change,” James Jones, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for human foods, said in a news conference. The goal, he said, is to “help consumers find foods that are the foundation of a healthy dietary pattern.”
The criteria for labeling a food “healthy” will match current nutrition science, FDA said, along with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and updated Nutrition Facts label, which requires companies to note any sugar added to their product.
The current criteria, established in 1994, is “very outdated,” Claudine Kavanaugh, director of the FDA’s Human Food Program’s Office of Nutrition and Food Labeling, said at the news conference.
The new labels rules, for instance, add salmon, eggs, olive oil, nuts and whole grains to the list of “healthy” foods and remove foods with high amounts of added sugars.
“It was past time to update the requirements based on the latest nutrition science,” Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association said in a statement.
Marion Nestle, a life expectancy expert and emeritus professor at New York University, described the new rules as “better than I thought it would be.”
In an email, she praised the fact that the rules include “real,” unprocessed foods and exclude most ultra-processed foods, such as sugar-sweetened foods like most children’s cereals. “It should encourage some salt reduction,” she added.
The rules, which are scheduled to take effect at the end of February, are voluntary and a part of a larger effort to help consumers more easily identify food that will promote their health rather than potentially damage it.
Eventually, the FDA hopes to add labels to the front of food packages to quickly signal to consumers whether a food promotes health. For example, other countries have added symbols that look like traffic lights to the front of packages so that people have a better understanding of which foods are “healthier,” though it’s not clear whether health outcomes have improved.
Americans still have the shortest life expectancy compared to residents of other wealthy nations. Life expectancy in the U.S. rebounded in 2023 after taking a nose-dive during the height of the pandemic, but it still falls behind most high-income countries. Chronic diseases related to diet, like type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer, are widespread.
More than three-quarters of Americans eat more saturated fat, typically from red meat, than is recommended and even more fail to eat the recommended amount of fruits, vegetables and dairy. Too many people also consume too much added sugar and nearly everyone eats too much salt, Jones said.
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This article was originally appeared on USA TODAY
