Since the original serving size
regulations passed in 1993, the size of food portions noticeably increased. The Food and Drug Administration’s proposed
rule will revise serving sizes to reflect current consumption data and
offer serving size information on nutrition facts labels “that will help
[consumers] maintain healthy dietary practices.”
This proposed rule has three main
objectives:
- Amend the definition of a single-serving container;
- Require dual-column labeling for certain containers; and
- Update and modify several reference amounts customarily consumed (RACCs)
The Nutrition Labeling and
Education Act of 1990 (NLEA) updated the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
(the FD&C Act) of 1938 by adding section 403(q), which authorizes the FDA
to require nutrition labeling on most of the packaged foods that it regulates. Section
403(q)(1)(A)(i) states that “a food intended for human consumption and is
offered for sale” must, with some exceptions, carry nutrition information that
provides “the serving size which is an amount customarily consumed and which is
expressed in a common household measure that is appropriate to the food.” This section defines a serving size
as an amount customarily consumed, instead of as a recommended amount of
food. Thus, RACCs are the “reference amounts customarily consumed” that are
used to determine serving sizes.
First, the FDA proposes to change the definition of
single-serving containers. They are now
defined as products “that [are] packaged and sold individually and that
[contain] less than 200 percent of the RACC.”
Products that have “large” (greater than or equal to 100 g or 100 mL)
RACCs may currently be labeled as containers with either one or two
servings. However, the FDA proposes to
categorize all products with less than 200 percent of the RACC as
single-serving containers.
The FDA’s second preposition relates to dual-column labels for
containers of products with at least 200 percent and up to and including 400
percent of the RACC. One column that
lists nutrition information for the serving size derived from the RACC is
already required. For this category of
containers, the FDA is proposing the addition of a second column to the label
that would list nutrition information for the container as a whole.
Third, the FDA proposes to update, modify, or establish RACCs
for various product categories. If the
median consumption data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination
Surveys “have increased or decreased by at least 25 percent compared to the
1993 RACCs,” the FDA will consider updating the RACCs. On the other hand, if this data has not shown
such an increase or decrease in consumption, the FDA will consider modifying
the RACCs. The FDA seeks comment on
whether it should update the RACCs and serving sizes for the products that were
identified as products of concern in the comments on the Advanced Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking. The FDA also
invites comment on whether other product categories that the FDA did not
address in this proposed rule should be amended.
Comments are due on June
2, 2014. Interested parties are invited to submit comments by any of the
following methods:
- Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov or
- Mail/Hand delivery/Courier: Division of Dockets Management
(HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Rm. 1061,
Rockville, MD 20852
No comments:
Post a Comment