Dive Brief:
- The food industry could be on the hook for an additional $14 billion annually if the U.S. required front-of-package labels for ultraprocessed foods, according to a study from the University of Chicago.
- A labeling mandate would apply to 72% of packaged foods and encompass 51% of consumers' grocery spending, the study said. The total cost number includes $9.5 billion a year for companies to reformulate and $4.5 billion in higher ingredient costs.
- The study comes two months after the FDA submitted a proposed definition of ultraprocessed foods to the White House. The proposal, which wouldn’t be legally binding, still remains under review.
Dive Insight:
Defining ultraprocessed foods has become a focal point within Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "Make America Healthy Again" initiative, though recent efforts to move forward with a definition have been slowwalked following industry pushback.
Last week, more than 100 nutrition and medical experts signed an open letter to the Office of Management and Budget to urge the administration to release its ultraprocessed food definition. As more Americans become aware of ultraprocessed foods and seek to avoid them, health experts say a definition would be the first step in giving consumers more guidance as they make choices about their diet.
"Releasing the proposed definition would not, on its own, impose new requirements on food producers or retailers, restrict the foods Americans can buy, or raise food prices," according to the letter. "It would, however, give families, businesses, and other stakeholders a common standard to inform their decisions."
The University of Chicago study based its analysis of an ultraprocessed labeling mandate using a definition put forward by Healthy Eating Research, which also has backing from major nutrition and health experts.
That definition, which uses the Nova classification system introduced by Brazilian researchers in 2009, identifies ultraprocessed foods based on whether products contain specific ingredients that are markers for ultraprocessing. Items that are considered part of a healthy diet under FDA's "healthy" claim criteria are exempted.
The study's estimated $14 billion annual costs to the food industry doesn't include the impact of litigation. Researchers also found a mandatory ultraprocessed food label would cost domestic agriculture $1 billion a year in lost revenue while increasing food imports by up to $9.7 billion a year.
The study, part of the university's Initiative on Enabling Choice and Competition in Health Care, said the "underlying core problem" in moving forward with a regulatory definition of ultraprocessed foods is that "there is no clear relationship between processing and nutritiousness."
"Consumer protection regulations like those intended for UPF are often well-intentioned but, because regulators lack an understanding of the regulated industry, often harm consumers," researchers said. "This could mean UPF regulations raise the cost of eating well while regulators claim a public health victory."
