NOVEMBER
2004
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...INTOUCH... Volume 5/Number 11 - November 5,
2004
Monthly Updates on Government Action Affecting Food
Labels
Brought to you by: Food Consulting Company
Your source for food label help at
www.foodlabels.com
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Happy Birthday INTOUCH! This issue of the newsletter
marks the
beginning of the fifth year of publication and free
distribution to clients
and guest subscribers. Food Consulting Company is
proud to report
that this newsletter has been delivered consistently
on the first Friday
of the month for 48 months straight! See the archive
at:
http://www.foodlabels.com/newsletter.htm
As with the newsletter, you can always count on Food
Consulting
Company for accurate, on-time project completion.
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FDA Regulations Developing for Carb Terms on Food
Labels
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A spokesperson for FDA's Center for Food Safety and
Nutrition
(CFSAN) has told Food Consulting Company that the
agency plans
to begin rulemaking to define the terms "low",
"reduced", and "free"
with respect to carbohydrates by the end of the
calendar year. This
will most likely be in the form of a proposed rule.
The CFSAN
spokesperson added that this year's action will not
address the term
"net carbohydrate".
Meanwhile, the American Association of Cereal Chemists
(AACC)
announced on October 25, 2004, that the organization
is working to
develop a science-based, measurable definition of
glycemic carbo-
hydrates. Also, Atkins has reported that the company
developed a
clinical method that measures the actual glycemic
impact of specific
products and the company will soon be using the term
"Net Atkins
Count (tm)" in place of the previously used "net carbs".
Read AACC news release:
http://www.aaccnet.org/news/newsreleases.asp
Read Atkins news release:
http://atkins.com/Archive/2004/10/5-366283.html
...INTOUCH... Comments:
FDA's plan for carbohydrate labeling is consistent
with the agency's
March 12, 2004, Fact Sheet on Carbohydrates published
at
http://www.fda.gov/oc/initiatives/obesity/factsheet.html
INTOUCH has reported extensively on carbohydrate
labeling; see
carbohydrate headlines in the INTOUCH archive at
http://www.foodlabels.com/newsletter.htm
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FDA Petitioned on Calories per Package for Nutrition
Labels
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On October 28, 2004, Center for Science in the Public
Interest
(CSPI) petitioned FDA to develop uniform rules for
reporting calories
per single serve package and suggested a dual-column
Nutrition
Facts panel that displays numbers for the standard
serving size for
a food, and values for the entire package.
A short time prior to the CSPI petition, several food
companies had
announced upcoming label changes to report calories
per package
and calories per serving for some package sizes.
According to two
companies (Kraft Foods Inc., Coca-Cola North America),
the changes
are prompted by statements made by FDA in a March 12,
2004, letter
to food manufacturers about accurate serving size
declaration on food
products.
The letter from FDA encourages manufacturers to label
packages as
single servings if the entire contents of the package
can reasonably be
consumed at a single-eating occasion, even though
current labeling
regulations do not require this. The FDA letter also
states the agency's
intent to re-evaluate the latitude currently allowed
for declaring serving
size and to tighten enforcement for compliance to
existing serving size
regulations.
Read CSPI news release and access petition:
http://cspinet.org/new/200410281.html
See Kraft news release:
http://www.kraft.com/newsroom/10062004.html
See Coca-Cola news release:
http://www2.coca-cola.com/presscenter/nr_20041015_expanded_nutrition_information.html
Read April 2004 INTOUCH report on serving sizes:
http://www.foodlabels.com/newsletter.htm
...INTOUCH... Comments:
Food Consulting Company encourages companies who are
now
revising food labels (to include trans fat values and
allergen labeling
requirements) for the upcoming January 1, 2006,
compliance date
to evaluate the declared serving size to assure the
values conform
to FDA-specified equivalent amounts for Reference
Amounts
Customarily Consumed (RACC). In the review of
hundreds of nutrition
labels for regulatory compliance each year, the
company sees many
labels with errors that do not base the reported
serving size on the
RACC, or RACC is used but the serving size is not
stated in the
appropriate equivalent household measure.
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Mandatory Dates Explained for COOL & Food Labels
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COOL (Country of Origin Labeling) is required by the
2002 Farm
Bill and is administered by the Agricultural Marketing
Service
(AMS), an agency within USDA. The COOL requirement
applies
to covered commodities including muscle cuts of beef
(including
veal), lamb, and pork; ground beef, ground lamb, and
ground pork;
farm-raised fish and shellfish; wild fish and
shellfish; perishable
agricultural commodities (fresh and frozen fruits and
vegetables);
and peanuts. The first mandatory compliance date for
COOL is
April 5, 2005, and applies only to fish and
shellfish. On this date
fish and shellfish must be labeled at retail, but not
necessarily on
the food label, to indicate the product's country of
origin and the
method of production, e.g., wild and/or farm raised.
The manda-
tory COOL date for all other commodities has been
delayed until
September 30, 2006.
A covered commodity is excluded from mandatory COOL if
it is
an ingredient in a processed food item (e.g.,
substantially trans-
formed). An interim final rule, published in the
Federal Register
on October 5, 2004, defines processed food, helps to
clarify what
constitutes substantial transformation of a food into
processed
food, and outlines the COOL requirements for fish and
shellfish.
Read AMS news release and access interim final rule:
http://www.ams.usda.gov/news/172-04.htm
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FYI: USDA has published a final rule that adopts
FDA's definitions
for "meal-type" and "main-dish" products, and amends
nutrition
labeling regulations to permit nutrient content claims
on multi-serve
"meal-type' meat and poultry products. For
background, read May
2003, INTOUCH at
http://www.foodlabels.com/archive/2003_05.htm
© Food Consulting Company, 2004. |