Food manufacturers are pushing Congress for faster implementation of U.S. Food and Drug Administration's new health claims and irradiation labeling policies, seen as friendlier toward industry. In her testimony before a Congressional hearing on the Food and Drug Modernization Act, Dr. Rhona Applebaum, VP of Scientific and Regulatory Affairs for the National Food Processors Association (NFPA), said the law is designed to allow manufacturers to give consumers more information about health and nutritional benefits of certain foods. "Unfortunately, FDA has taken great pains in its implementation of these provisions to exclude as many claims as possible," she charged. Applebaum said FDA turned down the first nine health claims submitted under new FDAMA provisions." Two FDAMA claims were authorized -- for whole grain foods and heart disease and cancer, and for potassium and reduced risk of hypertension -- but these small achievements are not adequate proof that FDA has abandoned its restrictive policies on health claims," Applebaum said. Also in her Congressional testimony, Applebaum charged that FDA's labeling policy actually discourages important food safety technologies, such as irradiation, from coming to market. She said that despite instructions from Congress to "explore alternative labeling for irradiated food," the FDA has been slow to act. "NFPA is encouraged that FDA is now seeking to undertake consumer research on irradiation labeling, but we wonder why this important reform of food safety information is taking so long," Applebaum said.
