"Limited and not conclusive scientific evidence suggests that eating about 2 tablespoons (23 grams) of olive oil daily may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease due to the monounsaturated fat in olive oil. To achieve this possible benefit, olive oil is to replace a similar amount of saturated fat and not increase the total number of calories you eat in a day."

Olive-oil containing products would have to add the following sentence: "One serving of this product contains (x) grams of olive oil."

Some important notes about the claim:
. It's limited to olive oil.
. Our claim was approved in spite of the fact olive oil is higher
in fat and saturated fat than what's called for in the health claim regulations and does not meet the "jelly bean" rule, pertaining to the amount of protein, fiber and level of four vitamins that are normally required.
. FDA was conservative when interpreting the science presented in
our petition. Guy Johnson, the consultant who worked on this project for NAOOA, said that is not a big surprise and expects FDA will continue that approach in future petitions.
. Given Election Day is tomorrow, the NAOOA's promotion of the
health claim approval will begin in full Wednesday. A reporter from USA Today has expressed interest in running a story Thursday.
. The final language of the claim has a higher amount of olive oil
than we had in our petition. The petition listed 1 tablespoon (13.5 grams). The promotion materials will include information on how consumers can incorporate two tablespoons into their everyday routine.

The approval notice from FDA is quite lengthy. We will continue to review the notice and provide any more information we think would be helpful, including details on how the claim can be used by olive-oil containing products. In the meantime, if you have questions, please call the NAOOA office or send an e-mail to info@naooa.org.

A copy of the FDA's press release can be found here.