We are blogging live have concluded live blogging from The 4th annual Friedman School Symposium at Tufts University – Nutrition Agenda 2009 & Beyond.

This morning’s topic is Nutrition Labeling and Scoring 2.0: What have we learned? What do we need to know?

Here is the list of speakers and presentations for this morning.

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Our brief summary:

1. Each nutrition rating system was eloquently presented.

2. Inconvenient issues were swept under the rug.

3. The food industry still controls what goes on the food packages, not the FDA.

4. The tower of babel of front of pack labels will only confuse consumers more in the coming years. As Barbara Schneeman of the FDA said – what will a consumer think when she sees a product that is a “Smart Choice, did not get a guiding star , is high in calcium, but got a 30 NuVal score.”?

5. As it stands, we recommend ignoring front of pack labels, and focusing on minimally processed foods.

for the entire session …

12:10 Dr. Kennedy – wrap up. thank yous, topic is timely, controversial.

12:04 Q: Please collaborate to create a single system

12:01 Dr Katz (NuVal) – not all tools match all tasks. variety factor. can’t eat spinach all day long. government guidelines help us plan a diet.

12:00 Q: Dr. Rogers (Tufts) – rating individual foods is ok, but how can we rate an entire diet using one of the systems introduced earlier?

11:54 Dr Katz (NuVal) – potentially one system – NuVal – could become the unified solution…

11:52 Dr Blumberg (Guiding Stars) – we are doing the experimentation that will help the FDA in the future if it decides to step in.

11:50 A: Fee scale – smaller companies pay less.

11:50 Q: can any company join Smart Choices? Personal discomfort as a nutritionist with what gets recommended.

11:48 A few more questions being asked, but hard to hear.

OK so we got 2 questions in, and both were diplomatically answered without addressing the actual question.

11:41 Dr. Schneeman (FDA): government is slow. explains in many acronyms various things the FDA has done and is doing, requesting info from the public, form the industry, etc.. All this is a signal to the world that the FDA is evaluating the info.

11:40 Fooducate Question to Barbara Schneeman (FDA): Why are you letting the industry confuse shoppers with so many labeling schemes?
If you don’t step up, Froot Loops are staged to become 2010’s superfood.
Can’t the FDA come up with a good enough system of its own – industry independent, objective, and scientifically viable?

11:39 Dr. Ballantine: It meets the criteria of the program, in that sense it is a better choice than others. No consensus on amount of sugar. no scientific consensus on adverse effects of food colorings.

11:38 Fooducates Question to Smart Choices: Is Froot Loops really a Smart Choice? Would you recommend this for your children to eat?
It contains 3 teaspoons of sugar, artificial food colorings, and trans fat.

11:35 Dr. Schneeman (FDA): talking about education outreach programs so people will be able to better understand nutrition panels as they exist today. Did not answer the direct question

11:34 PANEL DISCUSSION WITH ALL THE PREVIOUS SPEAKERS

11:32 Dr. Schneeman (FDA): In some case the front of pack label may be considered a nutrient claim, and thus subject to more regulation. Will the info help just in a shopping decision or also in a health / diet decision.

11:30 Dr. Schneeman (FDA): public hearings so far had little usable info

11:29 Dr. Schneeman (FDA): Front of Pack Labeling – FDA has been studying this since 2007.

11:26 Dr. Schneeman (FDA): Some products are not eligible for health claims because of certain nutrients

11:25 Dr. Schneeman (FDA): Qualified Health Claims – 1st amendment issue. (fooducate: FDA was sued to allow flimsy science to support flimsy health claims)

11:24 Dr. Schneeman (FDA): Health claims are about reducing risk of disease, not curing it

11:22 Dr. Schneeman (FDA): nutrient claims, health claims, disclosure statements, implied claims (“Healthy”) etc.. – everything is defined by law, must meet criteria

11:19 Dr. Schneeman (FDA): USA one of the only countries requiring standardized nutrition facts label

11:18 Dr. Schneeman (FDA): history of food labeling regulations

11:15 Dr. Schneeman (FDA): website information about a product is also considered labeling

11:11 Dr. Schneeman (FDA): 1st amendment is a consideration in food labeling.

11:10 Barbara O. Schneeman, Ph.D. – FDA Perspective on Labeling and Scoring
Director of the Office of Nutrition, Labeling, and Dietary Supplements in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the Food and Drug Administration

Q: our email question was IGNORED:

Is Froot Loops really a Smart Choice? Would you recommend this for your children to eat?
It contains 3 teaspoons of sugar, artificial food colorings, and trans fat.

11:08 Dr. Ballantine (Smart Choices): using consensus science was the issue, not how many products will make it. there were debates on this issue.

Q: someone from the CDC – the food industry assessed how many products would make it int the list, how did that impact the decisions?

11:05 Dr. Ballantine (Smart Choices): encourages all companies to participate.

Q: Dr. Katz – what about healthy products that are not in the coalition? their products don’t get a checkmark

11:04 Dr. Ballantine (Smart Choices): differences between Smart Choices and other systems:

only system on pack, not shelf

emphasis on calories

coalition

criteria based on serving size (not 100gr)

criteria specific adjusted to each food category

system is visible at home (on pack) , not just at the supermarket

transparent criteria

11:00 Dr. Ballantine (Smart Choices): does “better choice” mean “eat as much as you want”. added a calorie indicator as well to the icon.

10:58 Dr. Ballantine (Smart Choices): smart choices logo – after consumer research – green is the most popular color choice. consumers wanted only a yes/no answer, not a two tiered system.

10:53 Dr. Ballantine (Smart Choices): challenge – not driving food companys to fortify junk food in order for it to pass the benchmark. decided that 10% and up of one or two nutrients is sufficient.

10:51 Dr. Ballantine (Smart Choices): Science still has not defined the daily values for sugar and added sugar intake.

10:50 Dr. Ballantine (Smart Choices): Criteria is based on the nutrition facts panel and freely available to view on the smart choices website. (fooducate note: Nuval and guiding stars are secretive about their scoring)

10:48 Dr. Ballantine (Smart Choices): Category based approach to decide if a product passes a threshold to be recommended or not.

10:43 Dr. Ballantine (Smart Choices): too many systems in the past, one per manufacturer. Too confusing. So the big manufacturers joined hands to create a single benchmark. Coalition includes scientists, ADA, ADA, AHA, manufacturers, retailers, Keystone Group.

10:39 Dr. Ballantine (Smart Choices): goal is to place info on packages of products, not shelves as NuVal, Guiding Stars.

10:38 Smart Choices presentation by Doug Ballantine instead of Joanne Lupton who did not make it. Dr Ballantine is head of Nutrition at Unilever.

10:37 back to the session, 2 more speakers before the panel discussion…

10:20 Time for a 15 minute break…

10:16 Dr. Fulgoni (NRFC): currently no immediate plan to implement in a supermarket.

10:15 Dr. Fulgoni (NRFC): thanks his colleauges, Dr. Adam Drewnowski, and Deborah Keats.

10:10 Dr. Fulgoni (NRFC): NRF9.3 leads to implications for body mass index, blood pressure and plasma lipid profiles.

The NRF9.3 Nutrients are:

good – protein, fiber,vit A, vit C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Pottasium

bad – saturated fat, sodium, added sugar.

10:05 Dr. Fulgoni (NRFC): presenting statistical correlation of NRF9.3 to healthy eating guidelines.

10:02 Dr. Fulgoni (NRFC): Based on Healthy Eating Index 2005 (USDA). Working not just on telling people what not to eat, but also encouraging good nutrients.

10:01 Dr. Fulgoni (NRFC): presenting NRF9.3 – a very SIMPLE system compared to ONQI/NUVAL. 9 nutrients to encourage, 3 to limit.

10:00 Dr. Fulgoni (NRFC): System needs to be:

objective
simple
balanced
validated
transparent
consumer driven

9:58 Dr. Fulgoni (NRFC): We need a better tool to measure nutrient density. Nutrient Profiling should be a science based food guidance system.

9:56 Victor Fulgoni, PhD Nutrient Rich Food Coalition

9:55 Dr. Blumberg (Guiding Stars): we know default sugar values, for example plain yogurt has 11g, so anything over that value is added.

Q: how do you distinguish added sugars?

9:53: Dr. Blumberg (Guiding Stars): Hannaford were upset that many of the store brands ddi not get any star. But vendors and Hannaford were told to improve their product formulation so they could work toward the star. The algorithm is proprietary, but not hard to guess what you need to change.

Q: 75% of the products have no star on them. does it confuse consumers? concern you?

9:52 Dr. Blumberg (Guiding Stars): do consumers know how to personalize the score to their needs? still need to research.

9:50 Dr. Blumberg (Guiding Stars): Now adding Guiding Stars to school cafeterias!

9:47 Dr. Blumberg (Guiding Stars): The needle is moving – 1.4% shift in choices by consumers = 46 million additional purchases of starred foods vs previously. greatest shift in frozen meals, cereals, and ground beef.

9:46 Dr. Blumberg (Guiding Stars): 81% of shoppers at Hannaford Supermarkets are aware of the system.

9:45 Dr. Blumberg (Guiding Stars): Scores are agnostic to manufacturer.

9:45 Dr. Blumberg (Guiding Stars): Not rating bottled water.

9:43 Dr. Blumberg (Guiding Stars): Foods getting stars -

•100% of fruits and vegetables
• 51% of cereals
• 50% of seafood
• 21% of meat
• 21% of dairy
• 7% of soups
• 7% of bakery

9:39 Dr. Blumberg (Guiding Stars): impossible to develop one algorithm per supermarket. created 4 categories: general foods, meat/poultry/seafood/dairy/nuts, toddler foods, fats and oils

9:36 Dr. Blumberg (Guiding Stars): 500 New products in a supermarket each week!

9:35 Dr. Blumberg (Guiding Stars): all algorithms based on USDA, FDA, WHO National Academy of Science recommendations for healthy eating. Database is based on nutrition panel and ingredient list or USDA database. Had to work on the data and still do ongoing work.

9:32 Dr. Blumberg (Guiding Stars): “Good, better, best” system got good feedback in premarket tests. ignoring bad choices and just focusing on the good ones is consistent with ADA’s approach to nutrition advice. (?)

9:31 Dr. Blumberg (Guiding Stars): Nutrition profiling is a starting point for making good choices, but from there people can learn more. consumer feedback – we don’t have time to learn nutrition.

9:30 Dr. Blumberg (Guiding Stars): The concept is to help people make healthy choices in an easier manner.

9:27 Dr. Blumberg (Guiding Stars):  disclosure – is receiving compensation as member of Guding Stars board.

9:25 Guiding Stars (Hannaford Supermarkets) Program Update
Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, Tufts University, Friedman School
The Guiding Stars Program: Evaluating and Extending Nutrition Profiling

By the Way: The auditorium is draped with Sponsorship Banners from the food industry. Does this bother anybody?

9:18 Dr Katz (NuVal): FDA allows 20% error in nutrient values. Therefore results in NuVal are never 100% accurate. Perfect is the enemy of good.

9:16 Dr Katz (NuVal): ends. Q&A?

9:15 Dr Katz (NuVal): Consumer testing – people wanted a score of 1-100.

9:13 Dr Katz (NuVal): No ONQI/NuVal scientist has any food industry financial interest

9:12 Dr Katz (NuVal): so far we measured calories per dollar, it’s time to measure nutrition per dollar

9:11 Dr Katz (NuVal): Nuval in 525 supermarkets in 18 states

9:07 Dr Katz (NuVal): NuVal has an extensive database that they built from scratch of products, ingredients, nutrients etc..

9:03 Dr Katz (NuVal): NuVal takes many nutrition parameters into account, based on current science. May change in the future as science progresses.

9:02 Dr Katz (NuVal): presents the logic of ONQI – overall nutrition quality index. this is the algorithm in NuVal rating – 20 pages of coding in SAS.

9:01 Dr Katz (NuVal): Nutrition Label is very factual but even a PHD in neuroscience is not enough to answer a question – is this food nutritious or not.

8:58 Dr Katz (NuVal) showing how misleading our conceptions are about the amount of salt in different products. More in breakfast cereal than in salty snack.

8:57 Dr Katz (NuVal): if it glows in the dark you probably shouldn’t eat it

8:56 Dr Katz (NuVal): quotes Michael Pollan ” Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants” – but says not practical for most Americans.

8:55  Dr Katz (NuVal): There is a gap between what we know and what we do – The lever of destiny are “feet fork and fingers”…

8:53 Dr Katz (NuVal): Cancer and Heart disease don’t kill, It’s the Lifestyle choices we make – bad eating, no exercise, smoking, etc…

8:50 Dr. David Katz – NuVal Nutrition Scoring System Update
David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACP
Chief Science Officer, NuVal
Power in Numbers: How the breadth and depth of the NuVal system can position it to be the universal standard for all nutritional guidance systems.

8:49 Dean Kennedy – disclosure : no financial interest in any of the nutrition label systems, not even Smart Choices of which I am head.

8:43 Dean Kennedy intros the speakers

8:41 Dean Kennedy: Thank you’s etc..

8:40 Dean Eileen T. Kennedy steps up to the podium.

8:30am should begin now, people still getting seated.

8:20am Session is set to begin in 10 minutes: Nutrition labeling and scoring is appearing on front-of-pack and on store shelves. Learn what each program has to offer, hear early results of consumer response and look toward the future of labeling and scoring in these informative presentations and the lively panel discussion that will follow.

8:10am People are streaming into the lecture hall. Powerpoint presentations being set up.

8:00am Mic Test. First session scheduled for 8:30am EST

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