When
it comes to food nutrition facts labels, our mission in the food labels
industry is to communicate food and nutrition information to consumers
appropriately. While there are clear and specific regulations governing
what we can and cannot do on food labels, there are also shades of gray.
How do you navigate the ambiguities?
How to negotiate tricky food label challenges
Consider
for example a couple of potentially tricky scenarios. How they were
resolved provides a bit of insight into the creative approaches
companies adopt to ensure 100% regulatory compliance on their food
nutrition facts labels.
Scenario #1: New-to-the-world
beverage depends on food nutrition facts labels to support its
positioning in the highly competitive industry.
Vitality
Distributing, a young start-up company, recently launched a new brand,
the first of its kind – Avitae Caffeinated Water. Positioned as a
healthier alternative to soda, Avitae needed to carved out a unique
space in the fiercely competitive beverage industry and its food
nutrition facts labels had to support it. This brand was the first-ever
combination of natural caffeine and purified water and FDA compliance
with food label regulations was absolutely essential to its successful
launch. The most scrutinized part of the label is often the food
nutrition facts label. Vitality Distributing got counsel on the nuances
and tradeoffs for achieving brand goals and regulatory compliance. Their
ultimate strategy included creating a pre-emptive white paper to
address potential FDA concerns along with a food nutrition facts label
that sported an entire panel of 0’s.
Scenario #2: Is there a difference between “0g trans fat per serving” and “Zero Trans Fat”?
These
two statements are in fact different. “0 grams trans fat per serving”
is a factual statement and is allowed on food nutrition facts labels
provided the information is truthful and not misleading. If the food
contains less than 0.5 gram (1/2 g) of trans fat per serving, this
statement is allowed. By contrast, “trans fat free” cannot be used on
food labels. Per FDA regulations the term “free” is a nutrient content
claim and these claims apply only to nutrients or dietary substances
that have an established daily value; no daily value has been
established for trans fat. Further, food labelers need to know that
existing regulations disallow claims about trans fat using the following
terms: Zero, No, Without, Trivial Source of, Negligible Source of,
Dietarily Insignificant Source of, Low, Little, Few, Contains a Small
Amount of, Low Source of, Reduced/Less, Lower, Fewer, and any synonyms
of these words.
Food nutrition facts labels – art or science?
Understanding
regulation nuances for food nutrition facts labels is a skillful
endeavor. There are many go-to sources that offer direction, including
U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, FDA’s Food Labeling Guide, CFIA’s
Labelling Guide, Silliker Nutrient and Health Claims U.S. and Canadian
Regulatory Guide. In addition, Food Label News, a monthly e-newsletter
published by Food Consulting Company is well read for what matters in
food labeling.
An alternative approach is to work with a food
nutrition facts labels regulatory consultant whose role is to understand
the regulations and guide the development and approval of your food
nutrition facts labels accordingly. Companies such as Vitality
Distributing mentioned above chose Food Consulting Company as their
virtual food label department. In this role, the consulting company
starts with an understanding of the business needs and with an intimate
understanding of the regulations, providing counsel based on research of
other published government guidance, industry best practices and
actions by consumer interest groups. With that background, consultants
such as Food Consulting Company reach out to all client constituents
including Regulatory, R&D, Marketing, Legal, and Management — and
in many cases negotiate between departments to find creative solutions
for food nutrition facts labels that achieve business goals.
Details and nuances matter
Solving
food nutrition facts label challenges with inter-departmental
negotiations can be a crazy process. Here are some tips to preserve
sanity during the process of understanding and parsing nuances in
regulations for food nutrition facts labels.