Perspective: Examining Conflicts of Interest for Professional Service within the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee

Conflicts of Interest for Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee Members: Neither a New Nor Unexplored Issue

“…We read with great interest the perspective article by Kraak published in Journal Advances in Nutrition in 2023 [ 1 ] in response to our research article published in Public Health Nutrition in 2022 [ 2 ]. This perspective paper [ 1 ] questions our methods and intentions when writing our manuscript [ 2 ].…”

“…We read with great interest the perspective article by Kraak published in Journal Advances in Nutrition in 2023 [ 1 ] in response to our research article published in Public Health Nutrition in 2022 [ 2 ]. This perspective paper [ 1 ] questions our methods and intentions when writing our manuscript [ 2 ]. We gathered information and reported the conflicts of interest (COIs) that all 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) members had declared publicly.…”

“…Kraak [ 1 ] claimed that we “did not describe specific research questions or objectives in the methods.” But, in our manuscript, we described the objectives as follows: “In the present study, we therefore aimed to document the COI of DGAC members (in their capacity as scientific experts), and in particular their relationships with industry actors, since these relationships could directly have affected the committee process and decisions.”…”

Reply to M Mialon et al.

“…I was heartened that my perspective paper concerning conflicts of interest (COIs) for professional service within the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) [ 1 ] was read by Mialon et al. [ 2 ], who published on this topic in 2022.…”

“…Managing COIs and biases is complex to navigate. In my perspective paper, a key point raised to address these authors’ spurious methods was that “defining and describing the COI context accurately is essential given the variation across institutions and professional activities” [ 1 ]. I clearly defined the differences between individual and institutional COIs and biases, which differ based on whether one is conducting research or serving as an expert advisory committee in the United States [ 1 ].…”