Baking & Snack - June 2005 - 81

Nutrition News
Should Standards of Identity be changed?
The US Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug
Administration issued a joint proposed rule May 17 to establish a set of general principles for evaluating
whether to revise, eliminate or create new Standards of Identity for food.
Technological advances have led to increases in
petitions to modify food standards. The agencies
said they intended for the general principles to
lead to the updating of existing standards or the
creation of new standards.
Standards of Identity define what a food product is, its name and the ingredients that must, or may, be
used in the manufacture of food. The standards prescribe

minimum amounts of certain ingredients; maximum fat
and water contents; methods of processing, cooking and
preparation; permit optional safe and suitable
ingredients; and/or identify expected or characterizing ingredients.
Written comments should be submitted by
Aug. 19 to FSIS Docket Clerk, Docket No. 95-051P,
USDA, Food Safety and Inspection Service, Room
102, Cotton Annex, 300 12th St., SW, Washington,
DC 20250. Comments also can be submitted to
FDA Dockets Management Branch (HFA-305),
Docket No. 1995N-0294, FDA, 5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061,
Rockville, MD 20852.

Canada progresses
in its Food Guide review

Early gluten introduction affects infants

While the US government released its Dietary Guidelines
for Americans and MyPyramid food guidance graphic this
year, the Canadian government expects to finish reviewing
its Food Guide in 2006.
Health Canada's Office of
Nutrition Policy and Promotion established an interdepartmental working group
to revise the Food Guide and
supporting material, and it
established an external Food
Guide Advisory Committee.
Areas of review have
been categorized as technical and communications
issues.
Technical
issues
relate to such things as serving sizes, serving ranges, food groups and energy balance.
Communications issues include terminology, messaging
and modernization.
The following principles were developed:
* The Food Guide will promote a pattern of eating that will
meet nutrient needs, promote health and minimize the risk of
nutrition-related chronic disease.
* Revisions to the Food Guide will be based on the most
updated evidence.
* The Food Guide will be linked to public health priorities
and initiatives.
* The development of messages for the Food Guide will be
based on the premise that they need to be easily understood
and implemented by the public.
* The process to revise the Food Guide will be conducted
in an open and transparent manner.

86 / BAKING & SNACK / June 2005

The timing of the introduction of gluten into the infant diet
is associated with the appearance of celiac disease autoimmunity (CDA) in children at increased risk for the disease, according to a study reported in the May 18 issue of the Journal
of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
An observational study conducted in Denver from 1994 to
2004 included 1,560 children. All of them had increased risk for
celiac disease or type 1 diabetes, as defined by possession of either HLA-DR3 or DR4 allelles, or having a first-degree relative
with type 1 diabetes. The mean follow-up was 4.8 years.
Fifty-one children developed CDA. Findings adjusted for
HLA-DR3 status indicated that children exposed to foods
containing wheat, barley or rye (gluten-containing foods) in the
first three months of life had a 5-fold increased risk of CDA compared with children exposed to gluten-containing foods at four
to six months. Children not exposed to gluten-containing foods
until the seventh month or later had a marginally increased risk
of CDA compared to those exposed at four to six months.

Vitamin E may ward off Parkinson's
Diets rich in vitamin E may protect against the development
of Parkinson's disease, according to published reports about
a study done by a team of Canadian researchers working in
the Division of Clinical Epidemiology at Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, QB, and the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology
and Evaluation at Vancouver Hospital, Vancouver, BC.
The researchers combined data from eight studies and
found that moderate dietary intake of vitamin E decreased
the risk of developing Parkinson's disease. Since the data are
observational, confirmation from randomized controlled trials
is necessary, the researchers said. Their study was published in
the June issue of The Lancet Neurology.

Baking & Snack - June 2005

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