Defining Healthy Menus – What Restaurants Need to Know

Healthy, local, fresh … these are the ubiquitous terms on menus, but what do they mean?

When it comes to the term “healthy,” which is a nutrient content claim, the FDA defined it more than 25 years ago in 1993 with a focus on total fats, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium. Manufacturers of foods generally considered to be healthy but not low in fat (e.g., nuts, avocados, eggs, salmon) found it hard to meet that definition. So the FDA in 2016 began the public process of considering a new definition for “healthy.” In the interim, the FDA announced its intent to exercise enforcement discretion for foods labeled “healthy” that (1) are not low in fat, but that have a fat profile of predominantly mono- and polyunsaturated fats; and (2) contain at least 10 percent of daily value per reference amount customarily consumed (RACC) of vitamin D. This is what most have followed while awaiting a new final rule. 

Covered establishments, such as chains with 20+ restaurants using…