Moak: Take a look at FDA's new food nutrition labels
Whoever comes up with the information on nutrition labeling must get frustrated at the lack of respect their work gets from the average person. A lot of work goes into making this little box of data, which can be found on just about every edible product. And that box contains a lot of information that could have some serious health implications.
In reality, most people just don’t bother to read nutrition labels unless they’re consciously trying to do a better job of controlling weight, fighting allergies, dealing with health problems such as diabetes, or just trying to put better stuff into their bodies. But it might be a good idea to start, if you care about your health. And here in the Magnolia State, where we fight a constant battle with obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other problems directly related to the food we eat, understanding what’s in our food can be a good first step to eliminating those scourges.
Standard nutrition labeling began about 26 years ago, with the passage of the Nutrition Labeling and Education act of 1990. The law required all packaged foods to bear a label that describes their contents in standardized terms mandated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In addition, the law tightened restrictions on things like healthy-food claims and determined what things like “low fat” and “light” meant on food packaging. In 1992, the now-familiar “Nutrition Facts” label began appearing on all types of packaged foods.
In the past few years, the old label has been quietly undergoing a radical transformation. And just a couple of weeks ago, the FDA announced a series of sweeping new revisions. Some of the changes are cosmetic, although others reflect changed understanding of foods learned through two decades of dietary science. Some of the requirements reflect changes in how foods are packaged for use, and others just acknowledge the changes in the American diet over the past two decades.
“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,” noted FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf. “The updated label makes improvements to this valuable resource so consumers can make more informed food choices — one of the most important steps a person can take to reduce the risk of heart disease and obesity.”
One big change: Food serving sizes have changed since the law required that serving sizes be standardized, by measurement size and weight. In the 23 years since, we’ve been eating bigger and bigger servings of food, so the new “serving sizes” will be changing, too. For example, the FDA notes the size of a single serving of ice cream has risen from ½ cup to ⅔ cup. (In some cases, it never really made much sense. As Consumerist’s Kate Cox noted recently, “When’s the last time you had a measured half-cup of breakfast cereal in a measured half-cup of milk?”)
Another key change reflects the realities of how we consume packaged food. While that big soft drink bottle might actually be considered to provide two servings, many people consume the whole thing instead of saving half or splitting it with someone else or saving it for later.
Here are a few more changes:
- In the updated daily values section, which tells you what percentage of your “recommended daily values” of various components, there are some major changes you might not notice. For example, “Calories from fat” is being removed, because (according to the FDA), “research shows the type of fat is more important than the amount.” In other words, it’s important to know how much trans fat and saturated fats are in the item. (In case you were wondering, the FDA is pushing ahead with including trans fats, even though they’re being phased out.)
- Vitamins are a big change that you might not notice. According to the FDA, deficiencies in vitamins A and C — which were common in 1990 when the law was passed — are apparently rare now. Therefore, these vitamins won’t be listed.
- And you may notice that, in some cases, there will now be two columns instead of one. For example, a bag of potato chips will have two columns, one to indicate how much (or more accurately, how little) nutritional value you’ll get if you ate a “serving”; the other to detail the collateral damage to your insides if you decided to binge on the whole bag.
Food manufacturers will have two years to implement the new guidelines while smaller companies (those selling less than $10 million in sales per year) will have until July 2019. For more detail on the changes, visit www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/LabelingNutrition/ucm385663.htm.
Contact Bill Moak at email@example.com.