Looking for nutrition information about fresh fruits and vegetables? How about fresh fish and seafood, chicken and beef?
Then read the writing on the wall. That's where customers should be able to help themselves to details about fat, calories, vitamins and minerals in fresh produce and fish. Point-of-purchase brochures with nutritional information also are often available.
Because it is difficult to label each piece of fish or produce, the FDA has allowed retailers to display the information on pamphets or large placards. The Food Marketing Institute has printed charts, posters and brochures and made them available to grocers.
According to the law, if at least 60 percent of the country's grocers do not participate voluntarily with the plan, the FDA must make the program mandatory.
To meet FDA guidelines, the point-of-purchase charts or brochures for raw fruits, vegetables or fish must name the 20 most common fruits, vegetables or fish eaten in the U.S. and must include the serving size, calories per serving and the amount of protein, carbohydrates, fat and sodium per serving.
It also must have the percentages of the Daily Allowances for iron, calcium and vitamins A and C per serving. Optional are percentages of Daily Allowances for thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and protein and the amounts of complex carbohydrates, sugars, dietary fibers, saturated fat and cholesterol.
Raw beef and raw poultry, regulated by the Department of Agriculture rather than the FDA, also will be covered by a voluntary nutrition information plan for the 45 best-selling cuts of each.
Similar to the FDA's point-of-purchase program, the USDA's plan calls for "significant" compliance by grocers: They must include the name of the beef or poultry cut; the serving size (raw or cooked); calories per serving; the amount per serving (by weight and as a percentage of Daily Value) of total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrate and dietary fiber; weight of sugar and protein, and percentages of vitamins A and C, calcium and iron. The point-of-purchase information is not subject to the labeling format required for packaged items.