Category: Crops

WASHINGTON – The US Food and Drug Administration on July 3 said it no longer approves the use of brominated vegetable oil (BVO) in foods and beverages. The FDA concluded the intended use of BVO is no longer safe after studies that it conducted in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health found potential for adverse health effects in humans.

Previously, the FDA allowed BVO for use in small amounts (not to exceed 15 parts per million) to keep citrus flavoring from floating to the top in some beverages. The ingredient often is prepared from soybean oil and declared on labels as “brominated soybean oil” according to the FDA. Few beverages in the United States contain BVO, according to the agency.

The rule becomes effective Aug. 2. Companies need to be compliant a year later (Aug. 2, 2025), which will give them the opportunity to reformulate, relabel and deplete inventories of products containing BVO, according to the FDA.

“Revoking the regulation that authorized the use of brominated vegetable oil in food is an example of FDA using its risk and science-based post-market authority,” said Sarah Gallo, vice president, product policy for the Consumer Brands Association “This process shows that FDA’s system on reviewing food additives is active and working. Food safety is the No. 1 priority for the makers of America’s trusted household brands, and we will continue to actively participate in the regulatory process to ensure a safe and wholesome food supply.”

The FDA on May 16, 2022, published a study in Food and Chemical Toxicology that evaluated potential health effects related to BVO consumption in rats. The data from the study suggested oral exposure to BVO is associated with increased tissue levels of bromine and that at high levels of exposure the thyroid is a target organ of potential negative health effects in rodents. The FDA on Nov. 2, 2023, issued a proposed rule to revoke the regulation allowing the use of BVO in food and beverages.

Many manufacturers have removed BVO from their beverages over the past 10 years, and it is banned from use as a food additive in the European Union and Japan, according to the Institute of Food Technologists. California banned the use of BVO in an Oct. 7, 2023, ruling.

CHICAGO — The US Food and Drug Administration plans updates on sodium reduction targets, the “healthy” claim for food product labels and front-of-pack nutrition information later this year, said James Jones, FDA deputy commissioner of Human Foods, at the IFT FIRST expo in Chicago.

“Nutrition is really a very big priority for us,” Jones said in a July 16 morning keynote at the event. “This is an area where I think some of the things that we are doing will lead the people like yourselves – innovators – to innovate in a way that allows your company or your customers to meet the framework that we’re creating. So, we have a number of activities ongoing in the nutrition space.”

In October 2021, the FDA unveiled voluntary 2.5-year goals to reduce sodium in commercially processed, packaged and prepared foods to reduce excess sodium intake by consumers. The overall target is for an approximately 12% reduction across 164 categories of packaged food, and through the end of April 2024, the results look promising, according to Jones.

“We’ve got data from the first year and a half of the goal, and the data is pretty encouraging,” he said. “We are seeing significant progress towards meeting this goal. This is a voluntary goal. As a regulator, I’m very suspicious of voluntary efforts, but when a voluntary effort works, I’m all in. So, we are going to be issuing a second goal of a similar reduction in the not-too-distant future.”

A paper on the new sodium reduction target is currently being reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget, and the effort stands to be “the first of our major nutrition activities that will hit the street,” likely later this summer or early fall, Jones said.

“I am very hopeful that some of the very smart people in the room here will help either your company or your customers achieve these goals,” he told attendees. “We have seen this work in other countries, where you’ve had these slow, gradual reductions in sodium. The consumer doesn’t even know they’re getting less sodium, which allows your company to manage it much more easily. Even though the reformulation challenge may be very big, the customer aspect of it doesn’t become so difficult because your customer doesn’t notice that the sodium in their diet is going down.

Also scheduled for release from the FDA in the early fall is an updated definition of “what’s eligible for the term ‘healthy’” on packaged food labels, Jones said, noting the new rule will “align much more closely to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which has evolved significantly since the first definition was released 30 years ago.”

The FDA in late September 2022 issued a proposed rule to update the definition of “healthy” as a voluntary nutrient content claim, set in 1994. The current definition specifies limits for total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium, and qualifying foods also must provide at least 10% of the Daily Value for one or more of the nutrients vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron, protein and fiber. In reporting earlier this year on the planned update, the FDA said the proposed changes to the “healthy” claim definition better reflect current nutrition science, federal dietary guidance (namely the 2020-25 Dietary Guidelines for Americans) and the updated Nutrition Facts label.

 “We’re then going to follow the definition with the development of a logo,” Jones said. “It’s all voluntary. If you want to use the ‘healthy’ definition because you make foods that are eligible, you can but you don’t have to. One of the things we have lacked heretofore is there’s really no easy way for a consumer to recognize what meets the criteria for ‘healthy’.”

The FDA had issued notices in May 2021 and March 2022 that it was conducting research on a symbol that the food industry can use to label food products that qualify for the proposed “healthy” definition. Such a mark may be “particularly helpful for those with lower nutrition knowledge to identify foods that can be the foundation of a healthy eating pattern,” the agency explained.

“We’re going to develop a logo that – if you choose to and your product is eligible – you will be able to use on your food,” Jones said. “So, consumers will have an easier time recognizing a healthy food because they’ll see a logo that will exist across categories and within categories. We’re very excited about that.”

Later in the fall, the FDA expects to issue a proposed rule on front-of-pack (FOP) labeling for packaged foods, Jones said. The agency has been conducting consumer research, including focus groups in 2022 and 2023, to gather feedback on whether FOP labeling – in tandem with the required Nutrition Facts label – would provide shoppers with convenient “at-a-glance” nutrition information that adds more context in making food purchase decisions. In a note posted earlier this month, the FDA said the findings are under peer review.

 “It will identify a number of nutrients – saturated fat, sugar, sodium – and bring some information to the front of the pack,” Jones said. “One of the things that I think all of us know is that consumers make most of their food purchasing decisions in a split second. It is not happening, for most consumers, by turning a (product) around and studying the label. The FDA label is on the back of the package, which is filled with all kinds of useful information. So, by bringing some of this information to the front of the pack, you can help consumers make much more informed choices related to the products that they are buying.” 

KANSAS CITY, MO. — The promise of artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool to improve the food and beverage product development process was on full display at the Institute of Food Technologists’ IFT FIRST annual meeting and expo that was held July 14-17 in Chicago. The range of exhibitors sharing new applications using AI offered a glimpse of the progress that will come in the years ahead.

Exhibitor AI Palette, for example, demonstrated how its product spots emerging trends across 62 billion data points and identifies consumer motivations that may be used to create and validate product and marketing concepts. BCD iLabs showcased its AI software platform that helps accelerate product development cycles and reduces the number of experiments required for successful bench-scale projects, according to the company.

Several other exhibitors showed how their systems accelerate the insights development portion of product development, and others utilize “smart” sensors that employ AI to identify potential problems in product development and processing.

During a keynote presentation at IFT FIRST, Nora Khaldi, chief executive officer of Nuritas, described how her company is using AI to develop new ingredients. She noted that in the past the development of new ingredients that are cost-effective, taste neutral and are healthy was expensive and could take decades.

She said with AI, the process from development and commercialization of the ingredient, along with clinical studies and regulatory requirements, may be completed in as little as two years. Using AI, Nuritas was able to launch PeptiStrong, which is a peptide designed to promote muscle health.

“We use it (AI) to discover new ingredients for the food space in a fraction of the time,” Khaldi said.

The broad swath of AI applications exhibited and discussed at IFT FIRST this year illustrates the profound impact it will have on product development. Some of the industry’s largest companies are embracing the technologies.

For example, General Mills Inc. is using AI to run models that are helping to guide the company’s innovation process, and AI is being used to connect operations across customer orders, the supply chain and inventory levels to ensure the company has the right product in the right place at the right time. The Campbell Soup Co. has been following a similar path, tracking and curating billions of data points to identify insights and leverage agile design methodology to accelerate the development of new products that resonate with consumers.

Yet for all the excitement around the AI applications available today, it must be emphasized that the technology is still in its nascent phase. This period harkens back to the late 1990s, when most consumers and businesses were able to access the internet, explore its functionality and begin to understand the profound impact it would have on society.

Like the internet, AI’s initial benefits will be in accelerating planning, processing and execution; it will help reduce some of the friction that exists throughout the product development process. AI in the years ahead will echo the ways the internet revolutionized communication, information access and transformed how most businesses operate.

Think about the internet of today versus 1999. That leap forward in the next 25 years with AI may be just as significant and consequential as the past quarter century.

SEATTLE — Mandatory front-of-pack (FOP) labeling rules for added sugars, expected from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October (originally expected in June), are just the beginning of government efforts to reduce sugar consumption and prompt product reformulation away from sugar, Courtney Gaine, PhD, president and chief executive officer, The Sugar Association, told attendees at the International Sweetener Symposium Aug. 6.     

“Front-of-pack labeling will not do much by itself,” Gaine said, adding that information about calories also is important. “The fact that calories aren’t in consideration is a problem.”

She noted that FOP labeling for added sugars was just the first step, or “part of a toolbox,” in the FDA’s attempt to reduce sugar consumption.

“It’s more than just more information,” she said.

One FDA goal is to prompt food manufacturers to reformulate away from sugar, she said, citing an FDA document that said, “The mandatory declaration of added sugars may also prompt product reformulation of foods high in added sugars like what was seen when trans fat labeling was mandated.”

“The FDA is moving forward quickly without evidence that it (FOP labeling) really works,” Gaine said. “That’s a little scary.”

“Seventy-five percent of consumers support front-of-pack labeling,” she said, but without added information about calories, use of artificial sweeteners to replace sugar and other information, the added information is lacking.

The FDA is aiming at “nutritionally illiterate” consumers, or those with low nutrition literacy who aren’t going to flip the product over to the back panel that contains additional information, Gaine said. 

Humberto Jasso Torres, executive president, Mexican Sugar Chamber, said that since Mexico mandated FOP labeling along with warning signs in 2020, sugar consumption has declined, but diabetes and obesity rates have continued to increase. Further, he said that many food manufacturers replaced sugar with artificial sweeteners, which do not have to be listed on the front of the pack.

Since 2002 (well before FOP labeling for sugar was implemented), sugar consumption has declined by 33%, the percentage of overweight people has increased by 76% and the presence of diabetes has risen 207% in Mexico, Jasso Torres said. Consumption of non-caloric sweeteners increased 760% from 1993 to 2020, taking a sharp increase in 2020. 

There should be clarity for consumers about the intake of artificial sweeteners, Jasso Torres said, such as “no sugar” should be changed to “sweetened with Aspartame,” as an example. 

“Everything in the supermarket has a label on it. Is that adding more information?” Jasso Torres said, adding that much of the additional information isn’t understandable to consumers. “The problem is that it’s not solving anything. It’s harmful for packaged goods manufacturers and not beneficial for consumers’ health.” 

In Mexico, added sugars include all types of caloric sweeteners, but sugar and high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) should be labeled separately, Jasso Torres said. Consumption of HFCS, which is mostly imported from the United States, has increased because of its price advantage over domestically produced cane sugar. Legal challenges from the food industry concerning FOP labeling have failed, he said. 

Melissa San Miguel, president, Red Flag USA, noted that labeling laws began in Chile in 2012, followed by a sugar tax in 2014, FOP labeling and warning signs in 2016, limited advertising and other restrictions. There was a net reduction of 6.4 calories per person per day in Chile after the FOP labels were implemented, she said.  

Response to Chile’s FOP labeling was more muted than expected, San Miguel said. Now Chile is cited as an article of proof for other countries seeking to do the same. Seven countries have mandated FOP labeling, and 11 others are planning to do so, with most preferring some type of warning signs for sugar, sodium and fat, San Miguel said. 

“The regulatory ratchet only goes in one direction,” San Miguel said, noting FOP labeling for added sugar was just the beginning.

Many consumer groups want more aggressive FOP labeling, Gaine said, including “High In” warning labels to draw attention to saturated fat, sodium and added sugars.