“For more than 20 years, Americans have relied on the Nutrition Facts label as a leading source of information regarding calories, fat and other nutrients to help them understand more about the foods they eat in a day”, said FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, who is a cardiologist. “And in order to make the food palatable and appealing to consumers, they added more sugars – and we saw that happen across the board”. “The new Panel better reflects serving sizes, nutrients and ingredients that people should focus on, and it updates current percent of Daily Values”. Calories will now be listed in bigger, bolder type, and consumers will get to see information on added sugars, or sugars and syrups added to foods during processing. He adds that the refreshed label may help people choose better options, which is one of the most essential steps toward decreasing the probability of obesity and heart disease. She adds that this is going to spark a genuine difference in giving families across the US the information they need to come up with healthier decisions. Food packages containing one to two servings that are typically consumed in one sitting must list calories and nutritional information for the entire packaged portion.
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“It was the first significant redrawing of the nutrition information on food labels since the federal government started requiring them in the early 1990s”. These policies call for improving consumer education on the positive health impacts associated with healthier food and beverage consumption, and the enhanced nutrition label is an important tool in implementing this strategy.
“This is not about telling people what they should eat”.
Larger packages, like a pint of ice cream, will have labels with two columns. Daily values are reference amounts of nutrients to consume or not to exceed and are used to calculate the %DV that manufacturers include on the label.
All food packaging labels in the USA will adopt the changes starting July 2018.
On Friday (20 May), the US Food and Drug Administration said Nutrition Facts labels would include details on “added sugars” in grams and in percentage form.
The most visible change is much larger type for the amount of calories per serving. Details on “Total Fat”, “Saturated Fat”, and “Trans Fat” will continue to be required. In March 2014, the FDA proposed two rules to update the label, and in July 2015, issued a supplemental proposed rule.
“We commend the FDA for modernizing the Label, particularly the inclusion of added sugars, which we believe will be extremely helpful in preventing the debilitating chronic medical conditions, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease, now affecting millions of Americans”.
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Among the other industry organizations fighting the battle against the “added sugars” label were the American Bakers Association, American Beverage Association, American Frozen Foods Institute, Corn Refiners Association, International Dairy Foods Association and National Confectioners Association, reports Roberto A. Ferdman for the Washington Post.
