Name and briefly describe the three types of claims that may appear on food labels. How reliable is each of these types of claims?

Answer 1

Nutrient claims—for example, that a food is "low" in cholesterol or a "good source" of vitamin A—are based on the Daily Values and represent reliable information.
A health claim describes a relationship between a food or its components and a disease or health condition. Many health claims are based on strong scientific evidence and are thus reliable; however the FDA also allows health claims that are backed by weak evidence. These are "qualified" claims in the sense that labels bearing them must also state the strength of the scientific evidence backing them up. Unfortunately, consumers cannot distinguish between scientifically reliable claims and those that are less so.
Structure-function claims are the least reliable. A label-reading consumer is much more likely to encounter this kind of claim on a food or supplement label than the more regulated health claims just described. For the food manufacturer, printing a health claim involves acquiring FDA permission, a time-consuming and expensive process. Instead, the manufacturer can print a similar-looking structure-function claim that requires only FDA notification and no prior approval.A problem is that, to a reasonable consumer, the two kinds of claims may appear identical; for example, "Lowers cholesterol" is an FDA-approved health claim, whereas"Helps maintain normal cholesterol levels" is a less-regulated structure-function claim. Such valid-appearing but unreliable structure-function claims diminish the credibility of all health-related claims on labels.