Citizen Petition Filed Requesting FDA Allow Eggs May Be Labeled “Healthy”
Friday, April 27, 2018

As reported previously in the Daily Intake Blog, labeling of foods as “Healthy” has recently elicited strong and varied opinions.  KIND filed a Citizen Petition in December 2015 requesting that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revisit the definition of “healthy” to take into account present-day scientific understanding about the health benefits of many nutrient-dense foods.  FDA issued a request for comments on the subject in September 2016; see the Daily Intake Blog post here.

In a Citizen Petition dated April 19, 2018, Pete and Gerry’s Organics LLC (Pete and Gerry’s) filed a petition requesting that FDA update the regulation for the term “healthy” to allow eggs to bear the claim “healthy” and apply enforcement discretion allowing eggs to be labeled as healthy until the regulation is updated.  Pete and Gerry’s argues that current dietary guidance emphasizes healthy dietary patterns, including consumption of eggs as a nutrient-dense food; the consumption of dietary cholesterol is no longer capped in U.S. dietary guidance, and the current evidence suggests that eating eggs may be part of a healthy diet, so elevated cholesterol content should not preclude eggs from being considered healthy; and FDA’s policy is outdated and not in line with modern science.

Consumer class action lawsuits have targeted healthy claims.  Without clarification from FDA, some argue that healthy claims will continue to promote old, and possibly outdated, eating habits.  

 

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