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Article: Health claims: good news and bad news. (food product labels)
- Article from:
- Prepared Foods
- Article date:
- February 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 BNP Media. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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For the first time since the Food and Drug Administration adopted its health claim regulations as part of the massive set of regulations issued to implement the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, there are some changes afoot. Three recent FDA actions illustrate both what is right and what is wrong about the regulation of health claims for conventional foods.
I'll start with what is right. In early January, FDA proposed to allow a short and pointed health claim for oat bran/oatmeal and the relationship to the risk of coronary heart disease:
"Diets high in [oat bran or oatmeal] may reduce heart disease risk."
The brevity and clarity of the ...