APRIL 2003
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...INTOUCH... Volume 4/Number 3 April 4,
2003
Monthly Updates on Government Action Affecting Food
Labels
Brought to you by: The Food Consulting Company
Your source for food label help at
www.foodlabels.com
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GREETINGS! The Food Consulting Company will help you
modify
label information for components that are affected by
a formulation
change thus keeping your products properly labeled.
Call us at
800-793-2844 and visit our website
www.foodlabels.com
for other
label needs.
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Tips from Food Consulting Company on Trans Fat
Nutrition Labels
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The Food Consulting Company has been receiving many
ques-
tions regarding food label changes that will be
required upon
publication of the Final Rule for trans fatty acids.
Since nearly
all FDA regulated food and dietary supplement labels
will be
affected, the following information is offered to
answer common
questions.
-- Label Compliance Date: As reported in December
2002
INTOUCH (http://www.foodlabels.com/newsletter.htm),
FDA
intends to publish a final trans fatty acid rule in
2003. Manu-
facturers should plan to have labels in compliance
by
January 1, 2006, which is the uniform compliance
date for
all food labeling regulations that are issued
between
January 1, 2003, and December 31, 2004.
-- The grams of trans fat in a serving of food will be
declared
on a separate line, under Total Fat, similar to the
declaration
of saturated fat.
-- The % Daily Value column for trans fat will contain
an
asterisk (or other symbol) that is tied to a
similar symbol
at the bottom of the Nutrition Facts box and that
is followed
by a statement such as "Intake of trans fat should
be as
low as possible."
...INTOUCH... Comments:
Until the Final Rule is published, it is not
productive for manu-
facturers to print labels that attempt to satisfy the
pending rule.
When the Final Rule is published, The Food Consulting
Company
will assist companies in complying with the new
regulations.
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Task Force Seeks Views on Qualified Health Claims for
Food Labels
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The Food Consulting Company has learned from an FDA
spokes-
person that FDA's Task Force on Consumer Health
Information for
Better Nutrition is currently holding meetings to
learn stakeholders'
views on measures to encourage truthful and
non-misleading
qualified health claims for conventional foods and
dietary supple-
ments. Anyone interested can submit electronic
comments, on the
six questions listed below, by May 27, 2003, to docket
number
03N-0069 at the following address:
http://www.fda.gov/dockets/ecomments
1 - What body of scientific evidence do you think
should be
adequate for a qualified health claim?
2 - What types of safety concerns should be factored
into
FDA decision-making?
3 - What specific claims do you think are currently
ready for
consideration under the new guidance?
4 - On what issues are disclaimers valuable, or not
valuable,
in preventing consumers from being misled, and do you
have data to support your view?
5 - What kinds of empirical data should FDA rely upon
to
show that consumers are, or are not, mislead by
claims?
6 - Should conventional foods and dietary supplements
be
treated the same or treated differently, and why?
For background on this topic, see February 2003
INTOUCH at
http://www.foodlabels.com/newsletter.htm.
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FDA Regulations Proposed for Dietary Supplement GMPs
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FDA has proposed a rule on "current good manufacturing
prac-
tices" (CGMPs) to help reduce risks associated with
adulterated
or misbranded dietary supplement products. As
proposed, the rule
is intended to help prevent dietary supplements that
contain too
much or too little of an ingredient, the wrong
ingredient, a drug con-
taminant or foreign material, improper packaging, and
mislabeling.
FDA is holding two public meetings (April 29th in
College Park, MD,
and May 6th in Oakland, CA), intended to provide
clarification on the
Proposed Rule. Read meeting notice at
http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/98fr/03-7377.html
Read summary and access proposed rule background at
http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/dietarysupp/factsheet.html
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FYI: While the United States works to finalize a
trans fat labeling
rule, Denmark has become the first country in the
world to adopt
legal limits for the concentration of trans fatty
acids in processed
foods according to the online Copenhagen Post. The
Denmark
rule will take effect June 1, 2003, and will be
totally phased in by
2004. Efforts are underway to make limits on trans
fatty acids an
official rule for the entire European Union. Read
news report at
http://cphpost.periskop.dk/default.asp?id=29084
© Food Consulting Company, 2003. |