Nutrition Science and Everyday Application - beta v 0.1

UNDERSTANDING FOOD LABELS 57
Nutrient Claims
Nutrient claims provide straight-forward information about the level of a nutrient or calories
in the food, such as “fat-free,” “low calorie,” or “reduced sodium.” Nutrient claims are
regulated by the FDA, with very specific requirements for each one. For example, a food
with a “low sodium” claim must have 140 mg of sodium or less per serving, whereas a food
with a “reduced sodium” claim must have at least 25 percent less sodium than the standard
product. You’ll see claims that a food is “high in,” “rich in,” and “excellent source of” a nutrient,
all of which mean that a serving of the food contains 20% DV or more. A “good source of”
claim contains 10-19% DV of the nutrient. 1
Figure 1.15. Examples of food packaging with nutrient claims. Can you spot them?
Health Claims
Health claims are statements on food packaging that link the food or a component in the food
to reducing the risk of a disease. Health claims can be “authorized” or “qualified.” Authorized
health claims have stronger scientific evidence to back them than qualified health claims. 5
As an example of an authorized health claim, a food that is low in sodium (per the FDA’s
definition of less than 140 mg per serving) can include the following claim on their packaging:
“Diets low in sodium may reduce the risk of high blood pressure, a disease associated with
many factors.” 1
For an authorized health claim to be approved by the FDA, the agency says “there must be
significant scientific agreement (SSA) among qualified experts that the claim is supported by
the totality of publicly available scientific evidence for a substance/disease relationship. The
SSA standard is intended to be a strong standard that provides a high level of confidence
in the validity of the substance/disease relationship.” 5 In other words, the FDA requires a
great deal of evidence before allowing food manufacturers to claim that their products can
reduce the risk of a disease. As is evident in the low sodium claim, they also require careful
language, such as “may reduce” (not definitely!) and “a disease associated with many factors”
(as in, there are many other factors besides sodium that influence blood pressure, so a low
sodium diet isn’t a guaranteed way to prevent high blood pressure).