Kinds Files Petition For FDA To Change Food Label Regulations

Maker of healthy nutty bars Kind has filed a petition before FDA requesting it to change its regulation method of claims on food labels. Its petition is part of a new battle about food labeling between FDA and manufacturers of processed food products. In 2018 FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb had stated that to help customers make informed choices about food products it is planning to make changes in the way manufacturers are using dairy terms for plant based dairy substitutes as some milk producers complained that incorrect labeling is confusing shoppers.

Consumers in the country are now consciously purchasing healthy products compared to last year as per data shared by Mintel and brands are helping them in this choice by marketing their products as both healthy and nutritious. Kind too is working towards the same goal and back in 2015 too it had filed a petition before FDA to reconsider its methods of regulating food labels. That was when FDA asked Kind to stop using “healthy” on its website and the wrapping on its nut bars as the products within them exceeded fat and saturated fat levels that were considered healthy.

Though Kind complied with the order it maintained that use of the word “healthy” was not a claim of nutrition and filed a petition requesting the FDA to take another look at its labeling framework. The brand argued that as its bars contain nuts like almonds and others that are rich in healthy fats rules of the agency were outdated. Though FDA reversed its ruling after a year it has not finalized any guidelines about using “healthy” on food items. This has prompted Kind to now ask FDA to introduce more sweeping changes like updating regulations about details like “low sodium” and “good source of calcium” which brands can use on their product wrappers.