Industry ties could muddy US dietary guidelines, watchdog says

A majority of members on a federal panel tasked with providing U.S. dietary guidance have ties to industries with a stake in those decisions, according to a new watchdog report.

Nine out of the 20 experts on the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) had financial or other ties over the past five years to food, pharmaceutical, grocery and other industries, according to new findings from the nonprofit U.S. Right to Know.

Another four members had possible conflicts of interest with industry actors that have a history of corporate sponsorship and lobbying on guideline development, the group stated in its findings released Wednesday.

The committee, which comprises nutrition and public health experts affiliated with various universities across the country, is tasked by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) with updating and releasing dietary guidelines every five years.

The panel will release its next report in 2025.

“Millions of American lives will be affected by this report and so many lives hang in the balance, and it’s crucial that the report tell the truth to the American people and it’s not degraded into yet another sales pitch for big food and Big Pharma,” Gary Ruskin, executive director and co-founder of U.S. Right to Know, told The Hill in a phone interview.

The Dietary Guidelines team at HHS did not immediately return The Hill’s request for comment Thursday.

According to its website, the DAGC panel “is tasked with reviewing the current body of nutrition science on specific topics and questions and developing a scientific report that includes its independent, science-based advice for HHS and USDA to consider.”

The report provides the public with guidance on how to “build a healthy diet that can promote healthy growth and development, help prevent diet-related chronic diseases, and meet nutrient needs,” the website states.

The current committee is considering a range of new research, including the effects of ultraprocessed food consumption.

Industries with a stake in food policy and regulation spend millions of dollars each year on federal lobbying and hire hundreds of lobbyists, including some who are former employees of the agencies tasked with regulating the industry.

The agribusiness industry spent $169.5 million on federal lobbying in 2022, and the food and beverage industry spent $28.1 million, according to federal lobbying disclosures analyzed by the money-in-politics watchdogs at OpenSecrets. 

Seventy-four percent of the 328 food and beverage industry lobbyists swung through the so-called “revolving door,” OpenSecrets found, as did 61.5 percent of the 1,311 agribusiness industry lobbyists.

“We’re talking about another way that corporations can have influence on setting the eating priorities of our nation,” Ruskin said.

In 2017, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine published a report urging USDA and HHS to avoid conflicts of interest in the advisory committee selection process and increase transparency.

While U.S. Right to Know found “signs of progress,” the group emphasized that conflicts of interest undermine public confidence regarding industry influence in U.S. dietary advice and risk introducing bias into the DGAC’s work.

The five-person team at U.S. Right to Know combed through public documents including member bios, publications and other Google search results over the better part of three months, Ruskin told The Hill. 

Based on their analysis, U.S. Right to Know offered six recommendations. 

The nonprofit recommended USDA and HHS avoid appointing members with “high-risk” conflicts of interest, extend the disclosure coverage period from one to five years, use a more transparent disclosure form, publish provisional appointees before they are appointed and disclose roles at “conflicted nutrition organizations.”

U.S. Right to Know also suggested Congress expand the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, which aims to increase health care transparency and accountability, to cover nutrition.