In response to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s issuance of its final guidance regarding the labeling of added sugars for single-ingredient sweeteners, Courtney Gaine, president and CEO of the Sugar Association, issued the following statement:
“It is a relief for the sugar industry to finally have a path forward with labeling bags and boxes of sugar. We are certainly pleased FDA updated this guidance to reflect that there is no sugar added to real sugar and that the inclusion of an added sugars line for sugar would have misled consumers. However, we are concerned that the percent daily value declaration for single-ingredient sweeteners may be confusing and should have been consumer-tested before finalizing this guidance. We have no idea if this information serves as a constructive tool that enables people to follow the Dietary Guidelines and is not information that is misleading.
“We support the way FDA is handling cranberry products. It makes a lot of sense to permit factual statements explaining sugar’s role in these products, which, without added sugar, would otherwise be unpalatable. However, there certainly are other products with health benefits (i.e., yogurts and whole grain and fiber-rich cereals) where sugar plays a similar role in palatability that would also benefit from such a disclaimer. Oftentimes, comparable products in these categories are sweetened with sugar substitutes.”