They are now found on more than 800,000 foods.
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The more prominent display of calories, serving size and servings per container “drives consumers’ attention to these important elements when making informed food choices”, the FDA said. Under the new rules, the labels will indicate how much sugar was added to sweeten the food – that’s in addition to the naturally occurring sugar, as in, say, a fruit – and what percent of daily intake that is. But you’ll also see serving sizes reflect portions people actually consume – because nobody drinks only 12 ounces of a sports drink when the bottle is 32 ounces. Vitamin D and potassium will be added to the label-the FDA said Americans don’t get enough of those nutrients.
First lady Michelle Obama also spoke at the announcement, highlighting her work to decrease childhood obesity. But while those stunts lit up social media, the First Lady’s “Let’s Move!” campaign has also pushed real, substantive changes with genuine potential to improve the nation’s long-term health. The serving sizes now reflect what people currently eat – not how much companies think they should be eating. “We look forward to working with FDA and other stakeholders on messages and activities to help consumers understand what the new labels mean”. Now the nutrition label itself is more aligned with the goal of educating and limiting sugar consumption. New dietary guidelines announced this year recommend that people get no more than 10 percent of calories daily from added sugars. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed two rules that would update the label in March 2014 followed by a supplemental proposed rule in July 2015.
The association complained that the new “added sugars” section of the label – which will differentiate between natural sugars in a product, and additional sugar added during the preparation process – was an arbitrary change prompted by “science of low evidentiary value”. The sugar industry has said that this emphasis on added sugars is “not scientifically justifiable”, but the FDA has said it believes the evidence against over-consuming this type of sugar is strong.
Now, in most cases, the serving size will be the size of the whole package-a huge shift considering many companies have worked around that to market their goods as healthier than they really are.
Updated serving sizes displayed more prominently in a larger, bolder type.
“In fact, the recommended label changes may very well confuse consumers-particularly those who use the current labels-and lead them to make suboptimal decisions”, the report said.
At first glance, the new nutrition labels will appear nearly identical to their predecessors.
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Leon Bruner of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents the food industry’s largest companies, said “this update is timely as diets, eating patterns and consumer preferences have changed dramatically since the Nutrition Facts panel was first introduced”.
