The federal government invests little money in healthy food initiatives compared with what the food industry spends promoting fast food and sugary drinks.

Historically, Mande said, Congress has been reluctant to provide money to the agency’s food and nutrition program.

“The FDA’s food program has a billion-dollar budget, and only $25 million of that goes to food nutrition and chronic disease,” said Mande, now an adjunct professor at Harvard University and the CEO of Nourish Science, a food advocacy group. “So there’s almost no money for it, and that is the No. 1 barrier: they don’t have the budget or staff to do anything.”

By comparison, the food industry spends almost $14 billion a year on advertising, the majority of which promotes fast food, sugary drinks, candy and other unhealthy snacks, said Elisabetta Politi, nutrition director of the Duke Diet and Fitness Center in Durham, North Carolina.

The industry, she said, likely spends millions more on lobbying Congress.