IDFA joined with a coalition comprised of several other food associations this week to urge an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services to adhere to scientific evidence when crafting messages from the agency’s systematic review of the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) for sodium and potassium.
“We are concerned that the current key messages are neither transparent nor accurate in that they do not adequately confer the true state of the science as articulated in the report,” the coalition said in comments filed on Monday with the HHS Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. “Nutrition policies and programs must be based upon the strongest available science, and it is misleading to have such strongly worded key messages when they are based on such limited evidence.”
A draft of the review, “Effects of Dietary Sodium and Potassium Intake on Chronic Disease Outcomes and Related Risk Factors,” is open for public comment until Jan. 12.
DRIs are the basis for dietary recommendations and public health policies, and IDFA supports the revision of DRIs for sodium potassium. Late last year, IDFA and others called for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to base the DRIs on scientific evidence and consensus.
In the comments to HHS, the coalition expressed concern that the draft key messages did not include a call for more research on the effects of sodium reduction and potassium intake in the diet, which was a main conclusion in the report.
For more information, contact Michelle Matto, IDFA nutrition and labeling consultant, at amfoodnutrition@gmail.com.