Olive Oil Makers Win Approval to Make Health Claim on Label

Olive Oil Makers Win Approval to Make Health Claim on Label

By MARIAN BURROS

Published: November 2, 2004

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/02/politics/02olive.html?th

WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 - The Food and Drug Administration said Monday that producers of olive oil could say on their labels that there was "limited and not conclusive" evidence that people could reduce the risk of coronary disease by replacing saturated fats in their diets with olive oil.

It is only the third time that the agency has approved such a qualified health claim for a food label. The other two foods approved for such health claims were walnuts and omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish like salmon and tuna.

Until last year, the only health claims that food producers were permitted to make were those for which there was "significant scientific agreement," like calcium's role in preventing osteoporosis.

Producers will now be able to say on their labels: "Limited and not conclusive scientific evidence suggests that eating about two tablespoons (23 grams) of olive oil daily may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease due to the monounsaturated fat in olive oil. To achieve this possible benefit, olive oil is to replace a similar amount of saturated fat and not increase the total number of calories you eat in a day."

Scientists have also found that polyunsaturated oils and other monounsaturated oils, besides olive oil, can reduce the risk of heart disease. But the agency said that only olive oil producers had asked the government to be able to make that claim.

Dr. Meir Stampfer, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, said the decision showed the agency had adjusted its opinion about healthful diets.

"In the past," Dr. Stampfer said, "they declined to give any cardiovascular health claim for anything that was not low fat. Now they are recognizing that the idea that fat is bad as guidance for health is a concept that we should have moved away from long ago."

"We always have to think about diet as replacement," he added, "the basic idea of healthy, relative to something."

But Bonnie Liebman, director of nutrition for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a group that often criticizes the government and food companies, said, "The way the regulations are written, they allow too much saturated and trans fats in a food that will be marketed as good for your heart."

In addition, Ms. Liebman said, qualified health claims will confuse people. "People will not understand what evidence that is 'limited and not conclusive' means."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/02/politics/02olive.html?th