What are the nutrition qualifying criteria?
The coalition developed a comprehensive set of qualifying nutrition criteria derived from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, FDA standards, reports from the Institute of Medicine and other sources of authoritative dietary guidance. The criteria were designed to be flexible and adaptable – allowing for revisions to new public policy, dietary guidelines and emerging authoritative science.

You can download the current nutrition criteria by clicking here.

Following is a current general summary of the qualifying criteria and rationale for specific variations. Note that changes to selected categories are possible.

To view the current summary of the full nutrition criteria for if and how a product would qualify for use of the Smart Choices Program Symbol, as well as more detail on the variations, click here. Please note, changes to selected categories are possible, so please continue to check back regularly.

• Nutrients to Limit: These are nutrients that Americans need to eat less of in their diet for better health.

• Nutrients to Encourage: These are the “nutrients of concern,” that is nutrients lacking in the diet, as identified by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
  

• Food Groups to Encourage: These are groups of foods, rather than individual nutrients, that are recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
  

Calorie Information
Public policy consistently recommends that people consume a sound diet within an appropriate daily calorie intake to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Therefore, all products displaying the Smart Choices Program symbol will be required to display the calorie information that clearly states calories per serving and number of servings per container. The intent of the calorie information is to help people stay within their daily calorie needs and easily compare the calorie content of foods within categories.

Product Categories
The Smart Choices Program includes 19 product categories that must meet the general qualifying criteria of nutrients to limit and nutrients or food groups to encourage. Each category was then evaluated to fine-tune the criteria so that it was in line with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and other sources of nutrition science and authoritative guidance.

Calorie Criteria for the Smart Choices Program

The coalition needed to evaluate the standards for calories. Currently there is no authoritative, scientific standard for calorie threshold. Based on 2,000 calorie diet, calorie levels were set for meals, sauces, snacks, desserts and beverages.

A calorie threshold was determined not applicable for processed fruits, vegetables, 100% juices, breads, grains, pasta, cereals, meat, fish, poultry, eggs, meat alternatives, seeds, nuts, milk/dairy, cheeses, fats, oils, soups and sauces.

Alternative thresholds were developed for products that are 100 calories or less to prevent lower calorie options from missing the mark on smaller portion sizes.

Food-Specific Variations

For a few select foods and beverages within a particular category, there were food-specific variations from the general benchmarks that were established.

The coalition identified the following rationale for identifying different nutrition standards for specific foods and beverages.

The coalition’s objective was to set standards that include those oils and foods that have a balance of fatty acids consistent with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, while excluding those that are not. Notably, fatty fish were given a slightly different set of criteria in order to allow for and encourage consumption of healthy fats, including DHA and EPA.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans limit saturated fat intake to no more than 10% of total calories. The ratio of the dietary saturated fat guideline to the total fat guideline can be used to establish a fat quality index (10% saturated fat/35% total fat = 28% of fat as saturated fat). In turn, this index was used to help set the criteria for the Smart Choices Program.

While there is currently no FDA standard, it is recommended that trans fat intake be kept as low as possible. Consistent with FDA labeling guidelines, the Smart Choices Program excludes naturally occurring trans fats sometimes found in cheeses, milk, dairy, meat, fish, and poultry.

For cholesterol, the Smart Choices Program is consistent with the FDA standard for “healthy” and the USDA standard for “extra lean” in the case of meat, fish and poultry.

Within the FDA “healthy” criteria, it is recognized that some food and food categories may require different standards for sodium levels.

According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, in some cases, small amounts of sugars added to nutrient-dense foods, such as breakfast cereals and reduced-fat milk products, may increase a person’s intake of such foods by enhancing the palatability of these products, thus improving nutrient intake without contributing excessive calories.

When considered on a meal basis:

• The World Health Organization (2003) allows for 10% of calories from “added sugars,” which based on a 2,000 calorie diet is 200 calories/day
• Based on four eating occasions per day (200 calories/4 eating occasions = 50 calories/eating occasion)
• Grams per eating occasion equate to 50 calories/4 = 12.5 g, rounded to 12 g