The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in America wants to redefine the term “healthy eating” by targeting commercial “frozen healthy meals.”

The FDA wants prepared meals to be lower in saturated fat, sodium and sugar, but manufacturers say almost no food will meet the new rules if they go into effect.

These are companies that produce ready-to-eat frozen meals that simply need to be reheated in the microwave. Parmesan chicken, sweet and sour chicken with quinoa and more, ready to eat in just two minutes.

When is prepared food considered healthy?

Under the FDA’s proposal, companies will only be able to label their servings as “healthy” if they contain significant amounts of fruits, vegetables, or dairy, as recommended by federal nutritional guidelines. They must also adhere to certain limits on certain nutrients, such as saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars.

However, the restriction on added sugar and sodium that the FDA is seeking to impose has prompted a backlash from companies commenting in their letter that with these restrictions, they should exclude the vast majority of their packaged foods from the “healthy eating” category.

“We are particularly concerned about the proposed overly restrictive limits on added sugar. We appreciate the FDA’s interest in assessing intake of added sugars. “However, we believe the FDA’s restrictive approach to added sugar content in products that are considered healthy is unreasonable and beyond its mandate,” the consumer brand association said in a statement.

Too strict FDA rules

For its part, the snack food industry association argued that the new rules proposed by the FDA are too restrictive, while the International Dairy Foods Association noted that the FDA’s definition of healthy eating is inconsistent with other established policies and recommendations in nutrition areas. medical workers. He also made it clear that products such as low-fat chocolate milk and cottage cheese will not disappear from the shelves because of the new rules.

However, the FDA believes that the new rules will not have a major impact on consumer behavior.

A new study published in the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing analyzed hundreds of international studies on how useful food information on the front of the package is for consumers. The results showed that most consumers do not trust labels.

However, the American Hospital Association agrees with the FDA that the term “healthy” should not be used for highly processed foods that do not contain many nutrients. In any case, the FDA’s goal is to meet the latest nutritional guidelines, which recommend that Americans 2 years of age and older consume no more than 10% of their total daily calories from added sugars.

Under the FDA’s proposal, grains and dairy products can only contain 2.5 grams of added sugar per serving, while other foods such as fruits, vegetables, meats, nuts, and eggs must have no added sugar at all.

Source: Washington Post.