The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently responded to ABA on its citizen petition request specific to the dietary fiber definition as well as announcing its intent to add eight additional fibers for consideration as dietary fiber through future rulemaking.

“ABA appreciates all of the efforts the Agency has put forth to finalize decisions on fiber sources under the new definition,” said Lee Sanders, ABA senior vice president, government relations and public affairs. “Bakers and other food manufacturers can now begin to move forward with labeling updates as part of the Nutrition Facts Label (NFL) revisions final rule compliance efforts.”

The FDA responded to many of the citizen petitions requesting that certain isolated and synthetic non-digestible carbohydrates (NDCs) be added to the regulatory definition of “dietary fiber.” Additionally, the Agency issued a guidance—along with supporting scientific evidence review—to identify eight isolated or synthetic NDCs that FDA intends to add to the regulatory definition of "dietary fiber" through rulemaking. Specifically, FDA named eight non-digestible carbohydrates it intends to add: mixed plant cell wall fibers; arabinoxylan; alginate, inulin and inulin-type fructans; high amylose starch (resistant starch 2); galactooligosaccharide; polydextrose; and resistant maltodextrin/dextrin. Further, the guidance expresses FDA’s intent to exercise enforcement discretion for the new eight recognized fibers when calculating dietary fiber on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts labels. 

“It is still unclear whether FDA has officially opined on intrinsic and intact fibers,” continued Sanders. “ABA looks forward to additional insight from the Agency on this issue and future decisions on the additional pending fiber petitions.”