Nanny State

C. Jarrett Dieterle | 9.14.2024 7:00 AM

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently revising its guidelines for nutritional content claims on food, including what products can use the term "healthy" on their packaging and marketing. Yes, the same government that came up with the food pyramid would still like to be seen as an authority on healthy eating.

A proposed rule from the FDA—expected to be finalized in the coming weeks—will likely declare that dried fruits like cranberries and cherries can no longer be labeled "healthy." If the agency indeed follows through, this could be one blight that small and independent orchard owners and fruit growers across the nation may not be able to weather.

The agency's proposed rule, announced all the way back in 2022, would prohibit dried tart cherries and cranberries from being called healthy if they contain added sugar. Given that these fruits make one pucker by their very nature, sugar is often added to make them more palatable—also doubling as a natural preservative. This additional sweetening does not inherently make them unhealthy, however. In fact, it merely equalizes them in terms of sugar content compared to more naturally sweet dried fruits, such as raisins (not to mention........

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