A 10-line rider in a House Appropriations subcommittee bill would prevent the FDA from implementing the new nutrition facts label if it continues to include honey and maple syrup as added sugars.
Producers say the FDA’s current approach is unfair and misleading because honey and maple syrup are natural forms of sugar and processors do not add sugars to them during processing or packaging. Rep Peter Welcho of Vermont, the top maple syrup state, said consumers don’t want added sugars in their food, “they want pure products,” reported the Associated Press. The FDA has suggested that producers could use a special symbol on the line for added sugars on the Nutrition Facts label to tell consumers where they can find information saying the sugar is naturally occurring.
Members of the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the USDA and FDA budgets are scheduled to vote on funding bill today. Section 764 bars enforcement of the new Nutrition Facts label if it requires “the labeling of a single-ingredient food that does not have any sugars or sweeteners added to the food, such as honey and maple syrup (to) include a statement that the food contains added sugars.” FDA has set Jan 1, 2020, as the compliance date for large food companies. Small food producers would have until Jan 1, 2021, to use the new label.
As expected, the bill shuns Trump administration proposals to give food stamp recipients a monthly “Harvest Box” of processed food and to cut crop insurance funding by one-third. It includes $620 million for expansion of high-speed internet service in rural areas for economic development, education and health care. The money would flow through loan and grant programs.
To read the text of the USDA-FDA funding bill, click here.