New rules governing which food products manufacturers can label as ‘healthy’ were supposed to come into effect this week. But deployment has been pushed back a month, due to a freeze on all new regulations declared by the Trump Administration…
Unhealthy, healthier , healthiest? Depends on a lot of factors –
including some hidden deep in the ingredients list…
The freeze is government-wide. But the food labelling move stands as a prime example of the sort of positive move that’s being stonewalled – perhaps even quashed – under the leadership of Trump-appointed Health and Wellness Czar Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In fact, some folks are still afraid there may no longer be a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at all after the dust settles.
But assuming that there still is an FDA – or something like it – and the regulation does come into force, it’s going to have major effects on the whole retail food industry.
Some background…
It’s been just over 30 years since the FDA updated its official definition of what’s officially ‘healthy’. And a lot has happened during that interval.
One niche where science has vindicated formerly demonized foods covers nuts, seeds and Olive oil. It also includes fatty foods such as salmon. The emphasis has been on the kind of fat these foods con-tain. But such foods have recently been declared more than just healthy by nutrition researchers – even ‘foundational to proper diets’.
In another realm, which includes some breads, cereals and yogurts, currently allows them to be labelled ‘healthy’. But under the new rules, some of those would have to lose their ‘healthy’ labels due to high levels of ingredients such as saturated fat, sodium and added sugars.
What’s happening…
The new regulations would come into full effect by February 25, 2028. That gives the industry 3 full years to phase in and adapt to the changes. Sounds like lots of time. But the manufacturers have the option of not changing their labels, but reformulating their products, to avoid having to walk back their current ‘healthy’ claims. And that could take much longer.
The FDA estimates it will cost the food processing industry, collectively, $27 million per year, from now until 2034, to comply.
Adapting to the new regs will certainly be a big job, by anybody’s standards. The FDA says at least 5 percent of the processed, packaged foods out there currently are labelled ‘healthy’. And independent sources say almost three-quarters (75 percent) of the edibles on grocery store shelves are processed or ultraprocessed. All will have to be assessed, and relabelled or reformulated if necessary.
My take
I suspect it wouldn’t really take the packaged, processed food sector as long as it claims to comply with the new regs. But like any good defense lawyer with a weak case, they’ll try to draw out the process as long as they can to keep ‘healthy’ labels on foods that are supposed to lose them.
I also note that the new regs easing restrictions on labelling of foods containing nut oils and Olive oil may be in for a renewed rough ride from RFK Jr. He’s claiming they drive obesity and have ‘unknow-ingly poisoned’ Americans. But he’s also the guy who’s claimed that flouride in drinking water and toothpaste has been poisoning people for decades. In spite of plunging rates of tooth decay, es-pecially in younger kids, and an absence of serious side effects.
Anyway… The ‘healthy labelling’ issue is just another example of how disruptive and costly some whimsical, unfounded Trump Administrations measures csn be…
~ Maggie J.