In 2014, FDA proposed that producers disclose how much sugar is added to a product, though not the specific amounts. Then last July the agency began proposing to require a “daily value” for added sugar that lists a percentage. Now the Sugar Association is crying is crying foul over what it calls the agency’s turnaround. For good measure, it also argues that FDA lacks scientific evidence to justify the requirement.
Courtney Gaine, the association’s president and CEO says, “The way they’ve added the added sugar proposal is a deviation from the factors they consider when making labeling decisions.” He said the FDA has to be able to prove a public health link between a nutrient and a disease or some sort of quantitative number that is based on science before setting a percent daily value for a product ingredient.
The FDA says it has a strong basis for the change, based on the 2015 Dietary Guidelines that recommended that Americans limit their added sugar intake to less than 10% of their total daily calories. Critics then argued that the guidelines recommendation was entirely based on intake estimates and not science, The Hill reports.
Aside from their complaints about the process, major food companies like General Mills say they worry that the FDA’s rule is too complex and will confuse consumers. It won’t be clear, they say, that the extra number for added sugars is part of the total sugar count, not in addition to it.
“Consumer research conducted by General Mills, FDA and the International Food Information Council has consistently shown that the declaration of ‘added sugar’ decreases consumer understanding of the total sugar content of a product, and shows that the proposed nutrition label format changes offer no clear advantage to the current format,” the company said. They want additional consumer research on the totality of the proposed label changes and formats before issuing their final rule,” The Hill reported.
In any case, like most complicated rules, this proposal has attracted lots of interest by attorneys who are already considering legal challenges – although the proposal is still under review by the White House Office of Management and Budget. However, Glenn Lammi, chief counsel of legal studies at the Washington Legal Foundation, a free-market-oriented public interest group is threatening court challenges if OMB does not proceed with care.
He says that it is the stigma the agency is trying to attach to sugar that has groups willing to fight. “This country through government policy has had a fascination with one nutrient being the boogeyman of nutrition problems,” he said. “If it wasn’t fats it was carbohydrates, but all those efforts haven’t necessarily reduced the level of obesity in this country. We’re worried consumer will cut out added sugars and won’t necessarily become more healthy.”
Other interested parties told The Hill they are not much impressed by that argument. For example, Rachel Johnson, a professor of nutrition at the University of Vermont and American Heart Association spokeswoman, said settled science clearly shows that consuming a lot of sugar is associated with adverse health effects including, hypertension, heart disease, obesity and obesity-related cancers, The Hill reported.
“It is my view and the view of the American Heart Association that the amount of added sugars in a product is important information for consumers to have,” Johnson said.
According to the FDA, 13% of the average American’s total daily calories come from added sugars now. And, concern about levels of sugar consumption have been widespread. “For the past decade, experts have advised consumers to reduce their intake of added sugars because they contribute empty calories to the diet, and the proposed new label information supports that advice,” the agency said in a statement. “If finalized, consumers would see the same information on the Nutrition Facts Label for added sugars that they have seen for other nutrients such as saturated fat and sodium.” FDA said it would not speculate on when the final rule might be issued, although it would not be surprising if it did not emerge until after the fall elections.
So, the proposed labels would be more complex but the continuing concerns over obesity are leading to growing support for stronger labels, among other things—including taxes on sweetened drinks. There undoubtedly will be considerable back and forth over the details of FDA’s proposed labels—but tougher food consumption guides seem increasingly likely in the future, especially if the obesity problem continues to be important enough to influence policy, Washington Insider believes.