US FDA examining nutrition claims on food packages

U.S. officials are examining claims on the front of food packages to see if they give a misleading picture of a product’s nutritional value, the head of the Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday.

The FDA is looking for violations of food labeling rules and will take action against any “egregious examples,” FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said.

“Some nutritionists have questioned whether this information is more marketing oriented than health oriented, and judging from some of the labels that we have seen, we think this is a valid concern,” Hamburg said.

She said that FDA officials were also developing a regulation that they would propose to define nutritional criteria for claims made on the front of food packages.

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* FDA looking at front-of-package claims

* ‘Egregious examples’ will draw action: FDA chief

* FDA developing regulations for front-of-package claims

WASHINGTON (Reuters)