The US government has pushed back the publication of the new definition of the food claim “healthy”.
In December, the then Biden administration set out plans to redefine what could be deemed as “healthy” products.
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The US Food and Drug Administration published the final rule, which is voluntary, on 27 December. It was set to come into effect yesterday (25 February) but has been delayed until 28 April.
A spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services pointed to the inauguration-day announcement by President Trump to put a freeze on the publication of new rules.
A statement on the US Federal Register read: “With respect to rules that have been published in the Federal Register but have not taken effect, the memorandum orders agencies to consider postponing the rules’ effective dates for 60 days (i.e. until April 28, 2025) for the purpose of reviewing any questions of fact, law, and policy the rules may raise.”
The new requirements cover when the term “healthy” can be used as an “implied nutrient content claim” on food labels.
To be classified as healthy, foods will now have to contain a certain amount of the nutritional food elements “from at least one of the food groups or sub-groups” listed by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans – fruits, vegetables, fish, olive oil, nuts and grains, for instance. Fat-free, dairy-free and protein foods are others.
Additionally, the healthy claim can only be used if the products “adhere to specified limits” on saturated fat, sodium and added sugars.
The date for food companies to comply is not until 2028 and the delay has not changed that deadline.
Last week, a senior official at the FDA reportedly quit, pointing to recent staff cuts at the food-safety agency.
According to multiple reports in the US, Jim Jones, the head of the FDA’s food division, stepped down.
The news was first reported by specialist US food policy publication Food Fix.
In a subsequent report, Bloomberg said it had viewed a resignation letter Jones sent to Sara Brenner, the acting commissioner at the FDA.
Jones was appointed to the then new role of deputy commissioner for human foods at the FDA in 2023. He was brought in to oversee the restructure of the agency’s Human Foods Program after the organisation was criticised for its role in the infant-formula supply crisis in the country a year earlier.
Bloomberg said that, in the letter, Jones referred to the laying off of 89 staff within the FDA’s food division as “indiscriminate”.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration cut thousands of federal jobs.
On Monday, NBC reported the administration was reinstating some staff at the FDA’s medical-devices unit.
