Public Health Nutrition and Health Claims

The term "public health" refers to society's joint efforts to safeguard and promote the health of the entire population. Nutritional public health focuses on the promotion of good health through nutrition and the primary prevention of nutrition-related illness in the general public. The goal of public health nutrition is to avoid both undernutrition and overnutrition, as well as to maintain the population's optimal nutritional state. Public health nutrition is a branch of science dealing with the promotion of good health in the public through the avoidance of nutrition–related illnesses/problems, as well as government policies and programmes targeted at resolving these issues. Public health nutritionists and specialists utilise large-scale, organised, and multidisciplinary techniques to solve problems that affect the public, that is, a significant number of individuals that require collective action.

A health claim on a food label or in food marketing is a claim made by a food product company that their product will lower the risk of developing a disease or condition. Health claims are also made for over-the-counter and prescription medications, medical treatments, and medical devices, but these are governed by a different set of rules.