The White House National Strategy on Hunger Nutrition and Health

On September 28, 2022, the White House held a conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, the first White House conference on hunger and nutrition since the Nixon administration, over 50 years ago. The day before the conference, the Biden-Harris Administration announced its national strategy for ending hunger and healthier eating. The national strategy comprises five pillars addressing food insecurity, diet-related diseases, and health disparities.

Of particular interest, the Administration’s actions under Pillar 3 aim to foster environments that enable all people to easily make informed and healthy choices, increase access to healthy food, encourage healthy workplace and school policies, and invest in public education campaigns that are culturally appropriate and resonate with specific communities. This alert focuses on three key issues in particular: (1) updated and more accessible food labeling; (2) updated nutrition goals; and (3) efforts to limit marketing of “unhealthy” foods.

The national strategy seeks to use regulatory tools to improve health by updating nutrition standards and helping consumers identify healthy foods.

Specifically, FDA will conduct research and propose developing a front-of-package (FOP) labeling system to help consumers, particularly those with lower nutrition literacy, quickly and easily identify foods that are part of a healthy eating pattern. The FOP labeling systems under consideration mentioned in the strategy include star ratings or traffic light schemes.

As addressed in our recent client alert, as part of the national strategy, FDA issued a proposed rule updating the criteria for when food products can be labeled with the nutrient content claim “healthy” and when the use of “healthy” would be considered an implied nutrient content claim. The new “healthy” nutrient content claim criteria emphasize healthy dietary patterns by requiring food products to contain a certain meaningful amount of food from at least one of the food groups or subgroups recommended by the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines while imposing nutrient limits for saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars on certain food categories. FDA is also in the process of studying and exploring the development of a “healthy” symbol that manufacturers could use to show that their product meets the “healthy” claim criteria.

In addition, to help people understand how foods contribute to healthy eating patterns, FDA has developed a draft guidance for industry on the use of dietary guidance statements on food labels (e.g., “carrots are good for your health”). The guidance is currently under review at the White House Office of Management and Budget and likely will be issued soon. During the conference, Dr. Susan Mayne, Director of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, emphasized that labeling changes empower consumers with information and can result in industry reformulating their products into healthier foods.

The national strategy also seeks to make nutrition information more accessible for groceries purchased online. FDA will publish a request for information regarding industry practices, technology, and challenges to inform guidance for nutrition, ingredient, and allergy information that should be available for consumers who shop for groceries online. The national strategy encourages online companies to redesign their search algorithms to have healthy groceries show up first.

The national strategy highlights FDA’s updated sodium reduction goals and its continued work on lowering added sugar consumption.

The Administration announced several forthcoming efforts by FDA to reduce the sodium content of food. FDA will issue revised, voluntary sodium reduction targets that go beyond the targets set by FDA in 2021. FDA will also propose updating regulations to allow manufacturers to use salt substitutes in standardized foods. Government agencies will also seek to improve access to lower-sodium foods and align nutrition programs to comply with FDA’s sodium targets. For example, the Department of Veterans Affairs will seek to procure more lower-sodium foods and USDA will continue to work to reduce sodium in school meals.

In addition, FDA will assess how to further reduce added sugar consumption beyond the requirement to list added sugars on the Nutrition Facts label. FDA will work with other HHS divisions and USDA to hold a public meeting to seek public input on ways to address the high intake of added sugars, including potentially developing targets for categories of foods, similar to FDA’s targets for sodium.

The national strategy also encourages the food and beverage industry to take actions that increase access to foods that are low in sodium, low in added sugars, and high in whole grains, particularly for K-12 school children.

The national strategy emphasizes the role of marketing in promoting foods high in sodium, added sugars, and/or saturated fats, particularly toward children. To address this, the FTC has indicated that it plans to pursue actions to prevent the deceptive advertising of food and dietary supplements, including deceptive advertising that might be targeted to youth. 

As the Biden-Harris Administration takes the actions detailed in the national strategy, there will be opportunities for engagement from a variety of stakeholders, including through comments to its proposed rules, guidances, public meetings, and request for information. Stakeholders should be prepared to engage with FDA, FTC, Congress, and other constituents on these topics. 

If you have any questions concerning the material discussed in this client alert, please contact members of our Food, Beverage, and Dietary Supplements practice.