The Food and Drug Administration has scheduled a meeting for July 26 and invited interested parties to submit ideas for how the agency can improve its nutrition innovation strategy.
“It’s incontrovertible that diet quality has a major impact on health,” said Scott Gottlieb, M.D., commissioner of the F.D.A. “This is relational. We know, for example, that populations with better diet quality are shown to have better outcomes. But it’s also undeniably causal. We know that diet affects health. And we know diet is modifiable.
“What we need is the policy framework that allows consumers to identify healthier options and the market forces to inspire the development of these opportunities at a cost that’s affordable.”
Mr. Gottlieb added that the F.D.A. wants to empower consumers with modernized food labels that will make it easier to inform better choices while at the same time providing incentives for food manufacturers to produce the more nutritious products consumers demand.
“Providing a framework for encouraging the industry to compete on the nutritional attributes of their products can provide healthier choices for consumers.” — Scott Gottlieb, M.D., F.D.A.
“Toward these goals, our innovation strategy seeks ways to provide incentives for manufacturers and foster competition to create more nutritious food offerings and have clearer labeling that’s more understandable to consumers,” he said. “Providing a framework for encouraging the industry to compete on the nutritional attributes of their products can provide healthier choices for consumers and enable more opportunities for these healthy options to also be more affordable options.”
The meeting will cover three primary topics — modernizing labeling claims; modernizing ingredient labels; and modernizing standards of identity.
“Leveraging nutrition as a way to advance public health remains one of my top priorities as commissioner,” Mr. Gottlieb said. “All of these efforts represent the broad range of work the F.D.A. is currently conducting to create a safe and healthier food supply for American families, and to help consumers make more informed choices.”
The meeting will be held July 26 at the Hilton Washington D.C./Rockville Hotel and run from 8:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.
By Keith Nunes
Source: Food Business News
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