Changing the way we eat

Part of a POLITICO Pro Special Report series on the Obama administration’s executive action and regulatory agenda.

The Obama administration is moving ahead to make its mark on the American food system.


While Congress idles on food policy — even the farm bill was a struggle — the Food and Drug Administration is looking to ban trans fat, mandate calorie labels at chain restaurants and vending machines and is poised to revamp Nutrition Facts labels for the first time in 20 years.

These changes will affect just about every consumer in the country — and they are just the beginning.

The administration is also working on implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act, a law widely hailed as the biggest update to food safety since FDR was in office, while rolling out the first nutrition standards for all food sold in public schools, crafting voluntary sodium limits and a whole slew of other food-related priorities, not to mention the first lady’s high-profile Let’s Move campaign to tackle childhood obesity and initiatives to improve meat and poultry safety.

( FULL COVERAGE: POLITICO Pro Special Report: Obama's power play)

“This administration has paid more attention to food and nutrition issues than any other in my 20 years in Washington,” said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at Center for Science in the Public Interest. “In terms of visibility and moving the issues forward, it’s great to have that level of attention.”

But that attention has had its down side, too, experts say. Though FDA is a sub-Cabinet level agency, the White House has micromanaged practically every move, well before rules are submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review.

The East Wing, for example, doesn’t appear involved in regulatory issues, but sources say White House chef and senior policy adviser Sam Kass, executive director of Let’s Move, has been key in moving policies forward.

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While the White House tightly controls messaging and timing, agency officials describe a sometimes messy policymaking process behind the scenes. Entrenched bureaucrats at times won’t do what they’re told and the several-layer review process for mammoth new regulations can be “excruciating,” sources say.

The next big set of changes coming from FDA is targeted at the iconic black and white Nutrition Facts labels consumers use to decide if a food item is healthy. The labels haven’t been updated since 1994 and rely on old data.

The agency is likely to adjust the way serving sizes are expressed so they are more in line with the portion sizes consumers are actually eating. FDA could also make calories more prominent and list added sugars.

In December, proposals to overhaul nutrition labeling were sent to OMB, and sources tell POLITICO there is enough momentum and White House interest that the policy updates could be announced as soon as next month.

While the food industry anxiously awaits all of these coming changes — and it’s not thrilled about the recently-proposed trans fat ban — most of the biggest players have been supportive of the administration’s efforts, even as the first lady has called attention to the nation’s health woes and poor eating habits.

“They have proven to be passionate and yet practical in pursuit of their vision of a healthier America,” said Sean McBride, executive vice president of communications for the Grocery Manufacturers Association. “They are willing to gather the facts and listen to disparate views to arrive at responsible solutions that benefit the common good.”

Let’s Move has teamed up with the private sector on several occasions, including a new “Drink Up” campaign with beverage companies to promote water and a partnership with “Play 60,” an initiative founded by the National Dairy Council and NFL to promote exercise.

“These initiatives are good examples of how industry and public-sector partners can work together on comprehensive solutions to some of our nation’s toughest challenges,” said Chris Gindlesperger, American Beverage Association spokesman.

Health advocates are often leery of these partnerships, but they cheer the coming regulations, including a rule that will mandate calorie counts be posted in restaurants and on vending machines nationwide.

The Affordable Care Act required FDA to craft rules for such labeling at chain restaurants and “similar retail food establishments” with more than 20 locations and vending machine companies with more than 20 machines.

Because the restaurant industry and health groups want prepared food at convenience stores and grocery stores covered under the rule, a bitter fight over who is in and who is out has delayed the final rule for years — though it is expected out sometime in 2014.

However it shakes out, calorie counts are likely to be displayed prominently for years to come. “That will be a very visible legacy. It will infuse nutrition into eating out in a new way,” said Wootan.

Food safety is another area where the administration has aggressively pursued sweeping new regulations.

Few people remember that when Obama was sworn in in 2009, the nation was in the middle of a deadly Salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter. It was just the latest of a steady drumbeat of high-profile foodborne illness outbreaks. A few weeks into office, Obama pledged to do something about it.

“At a bare minimum, we should be able to count on our government keeping our kids safe when they eat peanut butter,” the president said at the time. “That’s what Sasha eats for lunch.”

Two years later, Obama was in the oval office signing a bill considered to be the most significant update to food safety law in 70 years. The law — backed by food industry, public health and consumer advocacy groups — left a whole lot of interpretation up to the administration.

“It’s an extraordinary achievement — that it passed, that it got done — that the rules are coming out,” said Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics and professor at New York University. “It was the big thing that needed to be done. All these other issues are important, but this one’s a matter of life and death.”

Sandra Eskin, director of the food safety campaign at the Pew Charitable Trusts, agrees, and thinks the remaining years of Obama’s presidency are crucial as farmers, food manufacturers and consumer advocates work to shape the hundreds of pages of new food safety rules.

“We feel like these next three years are as, if not more, important as the last the years,” said Eskin. “These next three years are absolutely critical to get everything in place and get the underlying resources to the agency and the states to help enforce [the law].”