[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6142 Introduced in House (IH)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6142

To amend section 403(q) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to 
prohibit the Food and Drug Administration from requiring the percent of 
 daily value of added sugars to be included in the labeling of certain 
             nutrient-dense foods, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 22, 2016

    Mr. Duffy (for himself, Mr. MacArthur, Ms. Herrera Beutler, Mr. 
 LoBiondo, Mr. Keating, Mr. Kind, Mr. Ribble, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Lynch, 
    Mr. McGovern, Mr. Neal, Mr. Heck of Nevada, Mr. Kilmer, and Mr. 
  Ratcliffe) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend section 403(q) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to 
prohibit the Food and Drug Administration from requiring the percent of 
 daily value of added sugars to be included in the labeling of certain 
             nutrient-dense foods, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Fruit Labeling Accuracy Act of 
2016''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds as follows:
            (1) The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 
        published by the Department of Health and Human Services and 
        the Department of Agriculture, recognize that ``there is room 
        for Americans to include limited amounts of added sugars in 
        their eating patterns, including to improve the palatability of 
        some nutrient-dense foods, such as fruits and vegetables that 
        are naturally tart (e.g. cranberries and rhubarb)''.
            (2) The Department of Agriculture regulations establishing 
        nutrition standards for all foods sold in schools establish an 
        exemption to standards for added sugars for ``dried whole 
        fruits, or pieces, with nutritive sweeteners that are required 
        for processing and/or palatability purposes (i.e. cranberries, 
        tart cherries, or blueberries )''. (78 Fed. Reg. 125; June 28, 
        2013).
            (3) The Food and Drug Administration finalized a rule on 
        nutrition and supplement fact labels (81 Fed. Reg. 33741; May 
        27, 2016) that requires the inclusion of the amount of added 
        sugars, in grams, and the percent daily value of added sugars. 
        The rule also recognizes that ``a healthy dietary pattern is 
        characterized by a higher consumption of . . . fruits''; that 
        sugar occurring naturally in fruit is not a concern because of 
        the nutrients delivered by the fruit, that added sugar is not 
        different than naturally occurring sugar, that foods such as 
        cranberries ``contain significant amounts of beneficial 
        nutrients as well as added sugars''.
            (4) The declaration of ``added sugars'' required by such 
        rule will likely confuse consumers and lead them to misjudge 
        fruit products containing added sugars to be less nutritious 
        despite their beneficial nutrients.

SEC. 3. FRUIT LABELING ACCURACY.

    Paragraph (q) of section 403 of the Federal Food, Drug, and 
Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 343) is amended by adding at the end the 
following:
    ``(6) Fruit Labeling Accuracy.--
            ``(A) In general.--The Secretary shall not, pursuant to 
        subparagraph (1)(D), subparagraph (2)(A), or any other 
        provision of this paragraph, require the percent of daily value 
        of added sugars to be included in the labeling of--
                    ``(i) dried naturally tart fruits; or
                    ``(ii) juice beverages that--
                            ``(I) are made with at least 27 percent 
                        juice of a naturally tart fruit; and
                            ``(II) contain no more than 28 grams of 
                        total sugars per serving or 110 calories per 
                        serving.
            ``(B) Definitions.--In this subparagraph:
                    ``(i) The term `Brix/Acid ratio' means the ratio of 
                the degrees Brix of a fruit to the grams of anhydrous 
                citric acid per 100 grams of the fruit.
                    ``(ii) The term `degrees Brix' means the percent by 
                weight concentration of the total soluble solids of a 
                fruit when tested with a refractometer with reference 
                to the refractive index of a sucrose solution.
                    ``(iii) The term `naturally tart fruit' means--
                            ``(I) a fruit that in its raw state has an 
                        average of total sugars of less than 5 percent 
                        and an average Brix/Acid ratio of six or less; 
                        and
                            ``(II) any other fruit or vegetable that 
                        the Secretary reasonably determines by 
                        regulation is comparably low in natural 
                        sugar.''.
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