Walking down the grocery store aisle these days can feel a bit overwhelming, as marketers increasingly add claims to their packaging to attract consumers and communicate a variety of real or perceived benefits. From organic, non-GMO and natural to fair trade-certified or sustainably sourced, the list is growing — and these claims can help or hinder sustainable food choices.
In addition, labeling tactics that focus on single components such as lowfat, sugar-free or low sodium have the potential to oversimplify dietary decisions, confuse consumers and create a health halo for some foods over others.
FDA is focusing on front-of-package labeling by developing a system it says will quickly communicate and provide context to certain nutritional information. “This has the potential to be one of the most momentous changes to food labeling since the Nutrition Facts label,” said Robert M. Califf, M.D., commissioner of Food and Drugs. “Front-of-package labeling could help consumers, especially those who may be less familiar with nutritional information, identify foods that can help them build a healthy eating pattern,” said Califf.
As part of this effort, FDA is updating its definition of “heathy” and conducting research on a symbol to represent the “healthy” claim. The current definition was set in 1994 when nutrition science was based on single nutrients. Today, focus is on dietary patterns made up of a variety of nutrients and other components. With so much potential to influence consumers, the dairy community, including cheesemakers, must pay attention to discussions around food labels and advocate that FDA’s proposed framework consider a food’s complete matrix of benefits.
Look beyond single nutrients
The relationships between the nutrient and non-nutrient components of foods — including vitamins, minerals and bioactive components as well as physical structure, texture and form — are important to consider when discussing what is “healthy.” This concept refers to a food matrix and can explain how a food’s nutrient and non-nutrient interactions impact digestion, absorption and physiological functions important for health.
The dairy food matrix provides a unique example of the advancement of research in this area, as dairy is a diverse group of foods that contain nutrients and bioactive components that vary in amount and macro- and micronutrient structure. The food matrix concept embraces the importance of considering whole foods alongside the individual components they contain, which is particularly important in relation to public health policy. Dietary guidance should be based on an evaluation of the health effects of whole foods, including dairy, not just single nutrients such as fat, sugar or sodium.
Labeling criteria that sets specific limits for saturated fat, added sugars and sodium without consideration of the food matrix could inadvertently lower intake of nutrient-dense foods like cheese, milk and yogurt. Such criteria have the potential to reduce a food to its “negative” nutrients without consideration for the overall nutritional content of a food and the positive contribution it makes to a healthy diet.
Prioritize food groups and diet quality to impact health
In addition to looking at the complete food matrix of foods, it is also important to look at overall food groups and diet quality. Eating a variety of high-quality foods from the food groups will have a greater impact on health than any one food could have. It’s also important to recognize that people eat different combinations of foods over time, rather than nutrients in isolation. Dietary recommendations are increasingly focusing on consistent eating patterns of healthy food consumption. In addition, high-quality foods such as dairy foods create the foundation for healthy eating patterns.
The quality of a food and its food matrix, altered by processing and other factors, can fall on a spectrum of how the food impacts health. For example, research looking specifically at fat in dairy foods suggests that dairy fat may have unique properties that differentiate it from fat found in other food sources. In addition, evidence continues to show that dairy foods like cheese, milk and yogurt offer a unique and essential package of nutrients that work together to provide multiple health benefits, including optimal growth and development in children and reduced risk of developing chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
As focus on front-of-package labeling continues, the dairy community must work together to ensure dairy foods remain an essential part of healthy eating patterns. Nutrition education is a critical path forward. At Dairy Council of California, we engage in education and advocacy at multiple levels — including regulatory, community, institutional, interpersonal and individual — to shift knowledge, values and actions for greater impact. As part of the process, we use our unique expertise and ability to translate science and value of dairy foods into actionable solutions to help build healthy, sustainable food systems. These efforts are strengthened through partnerships within the dairy community that lead to greater impact.