The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced its intent to relax restrictions on food manufacturers for making claims about the health benefits of products. FDA will allow companies to petition the agency for review of claims about the healthfulness of their products based on preliminary scientific information—a departure from its current practice of approving only those claims supported by conclusive scientific evidence. The agency plans to use an A-through-D scale to rate health claims, with “A” indicating significant scientific agreement backing the assertion. Those claims ranked at levels B-through-D will be considered qualified health claims and will be accompanied by disclaimer language. The lowest level claim, “D,” will be qualified by such statements as “Very limited and preliminary scientific research suggests that... FDA concludes that there is little scientific evidence supporting this claim,” according to the agency. “This action represents the biggest rollback in food-labeling standards in 20 years,” according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “The FDA’s grading system for health claims is untested and shouldn’t be used until the agency has completed consumer behavior research that shows that consumers will not be misled.” FDA will post petitions under consideration on its web site, allowing the public 60 days to submit comments on each set of health claims. The agency will begin accepting proposals as of Sept. 1.