American Dairy Coalition challenges FDA’s healthy labelling rule at Federal Register

USA – The American Dairy Coalition (ADC), a farmer-led advocacy organisation, has opposed the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) proposed Healthy Labelling Rule and the front-of-package (FOP) rating label for saturated fat, sodium, and added sugar in the Federal Register.

The FDA is proposing to have a front-of-package (FOP) nutrition label on most packaged foods to provide accessible, at-a-glance information to help consumers quickly and easily identify how foods can be part of a healthy diet.

The FDA’s proposed FOP nutrition label, referred to as the Nutrition Info box, would complement the Nutrition Facts label that is required on most food packages.

According to the FDA, displaying simplified, at-a-glance, nutrition information that details and interprets the saturated fat, sodium, and added sugar content of a food as “Low,” “Med,” or “High” on the front of food packages would provide consumers with an accessible description of the numerical information found in the Nutrition Facts label.

The ADC submitted an official comment to the Federal Register, arguing that the proposed rule unfairly discriminates against real dairy products except for nonfat yoghurt and nonfat milk due to outdated limits on saturated fat and sodium.

Additionally, the coalition emphasises that the rule overlooks the nutritional density of natural dairy, which contains several key nutrients that are under-consumed in typical low-fat diets.

“Allowing a healthy label only on foods low in sugar, sodium, and saturated fat discriminates against many of the most nutrient-dense foods that contain under-consumed nutrients of public health concern,” the coalition stated.

The American Dairy Coalition (ADC) expressed strong opposition to the proposed Front-of-Package (FOP) rating label, arguing that it misrepresents nutritional information.

“The front-of-package ‘nutrition information box’ for rating saturated fat, sodium, and added sugar as high, medium, and low is also concerning because it confuses,” it added.

According to ADC, the labelling criteria set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would prevent many nutrient-dense, natural foods, including minimally processed dairy and animal-derived products, from being classified as “healthy.”

The organisation contends that these foods, despite being rich in essential nutrients, exceed the thresholds for saturated fat and sodium, making them ineligible for a healthy claim under the finalised rule. ADC criticised this approach, calling it a setback to efforts aimed at improving public health in the United States.

Additionally, ADC also stated that the threshold for sodium levels would discourage consumers from eating natural dairy products such as cheese, cottage cheese, yoghurt and kefir, despite the products’ nutrients and protein.

“Even the Department of Health and Human Services has observed that dairy contains hard-to-find, under-consumed nutrients for health, such as natural calcium, potassium, as well as Vitamin D,” the organisation put forth.

It said that dairy contains 13 essential nutrients, and Nutrition and health panels have already declared that Americans, especially children, do not consume enough dairy and do not consume enough calcium, potassium, Vitamin D, and other nutrients that dairy delivers, and some of these nutrients are fat-soluble.

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