FDA proposes new rules for which foods can be called ‘healthy’

The Food and Drug Administration wants to update its rules for which foods can be branded “healthy.”

The proposed label rule aims, in part, to address a question as old as medicine: What does it mean for a food to be healthy? It would update the “healthy” label guidelines from 1994 to match up-to-date nutrition research — a notoriously messy and heavily debated field. Now, food makers can call their products “healthy” if they keep sodium, sugar, and other content below certain levels, and if they contain a “meaningful” amount of food from at least one of the food groups like fruits, vegetables, or dairy.

The change is a major win for certain food makers, including the company behind KIND bars, that had long been pushing the agency to update its label policies. KIND first filed a petition pushing the FDA to update its “healthy” label seven years ago, arguing that the previous regulations allowed some companies to tout specific nutrients in sugary cereals and sodium-flooded products that could have misled the public into believing those foods were healthy.

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