U. S. Department of Health and Human Services
U. S. Food and Drug Administration
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
March 13, 2003

FDA Task Force on Consumer Health Information for Better Nutrition

Public Docket 03N-0069

The Task Force on Consumer Health Information for Better Nutrition has established a public docket 03N-0069 to receive views and comments from interested stakeholders.

The Task Force is interested in learning about stakeholder views on all aspects of the Task Force effort. We would like to learn about your views on how to help facilitate the flow of information to consumers about the role of sound dietary practices in achieving and maintaining good health, while assuring that such information is truthful, non-misleading, and based on sufficient scientific evidence. Also of interest are stakeholder views on how to help American consumers make sound dietary decisions through the use of health claims for conventional foods, thereby reducing the risk of certain diseases and improving the public health. The Task Force is especially interested in learning about stakeholder views on the following questions:

1. What body of scientific evidence do you think should be adequate for a qualified health claim?

2. What types of safety concerns should be factored into FDA decision-making?

3. What specific claims do you think are currently ready for consideration under the new guidance?

4. On what issues are disclaimers valuable, or not valuable, in preventing consumers from being misled, and do you have data to support your view?

5. What kinds of empirical data should FDA rely upon to show that consumers are, or are not, mislead by claims?

6. Should conventional foods and dietary supplements be treated the same or treated differently, and why?

The Task Force has opened public docket 03N-0069 to receive stakeholder views. We would appreciate receiving your comments by Tuesday, May 27, 2003. You should submit written comments to the Dockets Management Branch (FDA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061, Rockville, MD 20852. You may also submit comments electronically to http://www.fda.gov/dockets/ecomments or by email to FDADOCKETS@oc.fda.gov. We request that you submit two copies of any written comments; individuals may submit one copy. Please ensure that you include the docket number 03N-0069 in your submission. All comments submitted to the public docket are public information and may be posted to the FDA website (http://www.fda.gov) for public viewing.