WASHINGTON — The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is extending the comment period for the proposed rule to redefine the term “healthy” in its use on food package labeling. The new deadline for comments is Feb. 16, 2023.
In a revision of the FDA’s original definition established in 1994, the proposed rule would require products labeled with the word “healthy” to contain a meaningful amount of ingredients from nutrient-dense food groups including fruits, vegetables, dairy, grains, protein and oils.
As an example, the FDA said a cereal would need to contain a certain amount of whole grains and adhere to limits for saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars to include the “healthy” claim on its package.
The proposed rule, entitled “Food labeling: nutrient content claims; definition of term ‘healthy,’” appeared in the Federal Register on Sept. 29. The FDA said is extending the comment period by 50 days, in response to a request from stakeholders to allow additional time for interested persons to develop and submit comments. Comments should be submitted to Regulations.gov and identified with the docket number: FDA-2016-D-2335.
