The canola industry has been claiming for years that its oil is healthy, but consumers are used to hearing product promoters make big claims and can be skeptical.
As well, food manufacturers are not allowed to make health claims on their packages unless they have won government approval.
For canola, that official imprimatur from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration may be just months away, says the man spearheading the canola industry’s efforts.
If it does come, canola’s market could boom.
“When FDA announces the claim, we’ll be all over the national media,” said consultant Guy Johnson.
Read Also
Going beyond “Resistant” on crop seed labels
Variety resistance is getting more specific on crop disease pathogens, but that information must be conveyed in a way that actually helps producers make rotation decisions.
“We’ll be talking to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, hopefully the broadcast media as well.”
Johnson is pressing the claim application for the U.S. Canola Association.
He previously helped arrange the application for the olive oil industry a few years ago, which helped it gain an FDA health claim. Johnson said it boosted olive oil’s popularity with consumers.
It wasn’t a full this-is-good-for-you claim, which is “almost impossible to get,” but allowed olive oil products to claim their product was linked to improved health.
This was a “C” claim, two steps down from a full health claim.
“Even that was pretty effective in terms of communications that it generated positive messages for olive oil, but we think that frankly the science for canola oil is stronger than that for olive oil and we’ve asked FDA to give us a higher level claim,” he said.
He is hoping to get canola a “B” claim.
Right now he has two sets of claim words before the FDA, including one that says “scientific evidence suggests but does not prove the benefits” of canola oil for heart health.
FDA standards are high, so being able to state categorically that canola oil is better for the heart would almost be an impossible mission, he said.
However, a qualified health claim like this could have a big market
impact.
Johnson said the tree nuts industry – almonds, pecans and pistachios – has seen about a 15 percent boost in its sales since it received a qualified health claim more than a year ago.
“It changed the entire face of the tree nut industry,” Johnson said.
“People went from thinking tree nuts were a high fat, high calorie food to ‘wow, you mean it’s a healthy fat and I can include it in my diet?’ It has given permission to eat nuts and their business has escalated substantially since the claim was approved.”
Health claims take about 270 days to go through the FDA process if all goes well.
The FDA confidentially considers any new petition for 45 days and then rules whether it will be put forward for public comment.
If the claim is approved, the public has 60 days to comment on the proposal. After that, the FDA has a 155 day review period. At the end of this it announces whether or not the claim is allowed.
It’s a rare achievement to win one, but canola has a good shot, Johnson said. “They are not approved every day.”
