Friday was the final day for the public to comment on 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, has raised concerns that the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee greatly exceeded its scope and used potentially biased methodologies in developing recommendations for the Secretaries of United States Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Health and Human Services. With the comment period ending, Conaway continues to call on Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell to commit to a process to fully review and consider the public comments before publishing new dietary guidelines pursuant to the National Nutrition Monitoring and Related Research Act of 1990.

“Members of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee greatly exceeded their scope in developing recommendations for the Secretaries of Agriculture, and Health and Human Services, confirmed by the overwhelming response during the public comment period,” Conaway said. “Before moving forward with the development of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the secretaries need to review all comments. The focus should be more on the quality of the 2015 guidelines and assurances that public input does matter. I again call on them to commit to fully reviewing all the comments and completely considering them before developing new dietary guidelines.”

Read more: agriculture.house.gov