The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) held its next-to-last public meeting to finalize positions for the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee report, which is slated for submission to the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and Agriculture by early 2015. Unlike the September public meeting, dairy was not a significant point of discussion, but the committee raised a number of issues that are important to dairy.

Although conversations are still ongoing within the group, this meeting did give more details about the committee’s positions and the contents of the final report. In keeping with their interest of identifying eating patterns that are associated with healthier nutrient intake and better health outcomes, the DGAC compared the foods included in a standard U.S. diet, the Mediterranean Diet and vegetarian diets. They noted that all three offer healthy eating patterns and include at least two servings of dairy per day.

Added Sugars and Nutrition Facts Panel

The committee also discussed a recommended limit of added sugars intake of 10 percent of calories. They plan to recommend including the added sugars content of foods and beverages in the Nutrition Facts panel of packaged foods. The label should include grams and teaspoons of added sugar, as well as the percent Daily Value amount, according to committee members.

They also said sodium should be limited, but they saw no reason to set a recommended limit less than 2300 mg per day. However, in order to help Americans lower their sodium intake, they do plan to recommend policy and industry approaches to lowering sodium in the food supply, including re-evaluating the GRAS status of salt and encouraging the food industry to continue reformulation efforts to lower sodium content of foods.

The DGAC plans to hold its final meeting on December 15.

For more information, contact Michelle Albee Matto, IDFA’s nutrition and labeling consultant, at amfoodnutrition@gmail.com.