The departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) made progress last week on the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Department officials announced a call for nominations of nutrition professionals to serve on the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee and released a final list of priority topics and related scientific questions that the committee will consider when making recommendations for the 2020 guidelines.

“We’re pleased that several of the topics and questions that the committee will consider reflect the priority areas of IDFA and the dairy industry,” said Michelle Matto, R.D.N., IDFA’s nutrition and labeling consultant.

The final list indicates that the committee will review nutrition research on the impact of various beverages, including milk, on diet quality, as well as research on the role that different types and sources of dietary fats, which could include milkfat, play in a healthy diet. These topics reflect requests IDFA made in comments submitted this March.

IDFA also asked the departments to consider research on feeding yogurt to infants starting at 6 months of age, a recommendation that aligns with other USDA guidance.

The final list asks the committee to consider complementary feeding of infants and toddlers with foods and beverages other than human milk or infant formula. It also asks them to consider timing for introducing complementary foods, as well as the types of foods and beverages that are appropriate for introduction to infants and toddlers.

Read IDFA’s comments here.

Next Steps

USDA and HHS will select committee members, which will be a variety of top nutrition and medical researchers, academics and practitioners. They will work together to create recommendations based on the priority topics and questions.

USDA and HHS will then use the committee’s recommendations, as well as future written and oral comments from the public, to craft the final 2020 Dietary Guidelines.

IDFA will hold a call with its Nutrition Working Group next Thursday, Sept. 20 at 11:00 a.m., Eastern time, to discuss these next steps in more detail.