WASHINGTON—The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) generally supports FDA’s proposal to revise the Nutrition and Supplement Facts labels.
AHPA is among a number of trade organizations in the dietary supplement industry that have weighed in on FDA’s sweeping proposal. Others include the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) and Natural Products Association (NPA).
In comments filed on Aug. 1 with FDA, AHPA supported a number of the agency’s proposals, including formatting changes and its decision to retain the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) approach to setting Daily Values for nutrients where RDAs exist. AHPA also suggested changes to FDA’s proposal, including a recommendation that FDA clarify provisions for the determination and labeling of protein content on Nutrition and Supplements Facts panels.
Critics of the current Nutrition Facts label, which was created in 1993, have pointed out that some information is unnecessary, hard to read and difficult to understand. A side-by-side comparison of the current label and the proposed one emphasizes that calories and servings per container would be displayed more prominently through larger fonts.
On the Supplement Facts label, FDA has not proposed making the serving size or servings per container information more noticeable or prominent. FDA explained it’s more important for consumers to know the quantity of the product to take, such as the number of tablets and packets, than the number of servings that are contained in the package. However, the agency has proposed requiring a more prominent display of calories on the Supplement Facts label.