Former USDA Official & FoodMinds Chief Science Officer Available to Comment on FDA's Proposed Changes to Nutrition Facts Label

WHY:            

The First Lady is expected to share today the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to update its Nutrition Facts label policies, which will impact nearly all food and beverage products marketed for retail sale and promoted in the United States. This sweeping change to update the 20-year-old guidelines presents challenges – and opportunities – that food and beverage companies will need to quickly understand and mobilize.

WHO:        

Attending today's briefing and available for comment is Dr. Robert Post, MEd., MSc. Post formerly led USDA's nutrition policy agency, the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP), and prior to that led USDA's food policy program, including food labeling, for over a decade. Post recently joined FoodMinds LLC, a food and nutrition communications consulting company, as chief science officer. 

WHAT:           

FoodMinds has partnered with Nutrition Impact LLC, a consulting firm that develops science-based messages about clients' products and services, and also analyzes dietary intake trends, and EAS Consulting Group LLC, a regulatory consulting company specializing in complex labeling and claims issues, to create Food Label Compass (FLC). FLC will guide food and beverage companies in three ways:  

1) WHAT DOES THE NEW POLICY MEAN TO YOUR PRODUCTS? The Food Label Compass conducts in-depth analyses of the food and nutrient content of clients' brands relative to the new FDA guidelines, identifying the potential changes to the serving size rules (Reference Amounts Customarily Consumed (RACCs)), assessing impact of potential changes to Daily Values (DVs) and how nutrition claim criteria may be affected.

2) HOW DO I COMPLY? Food Label Compass develops regulatory recommendations and guidance to construct labels modified to reflect the new requirements, validates claim opportunities, answers questions on how to comply with the new nutrition information rules and ensures the information is presented in an approved and consumer-friendly manner.

3) WHAT'S MY STRATEGIC ROADMAP FOR THESE CHANGES? The third component develops a strategic roadmap for the client's product portfolio and brand messaging to position and plan around the new nutrition facts and labels that will effectively communicate to consumers and other audiences about the new nutrition information to ensure brands and foods are perceived and used in the way that is intended.