After a recent study finds that America has the highest rates of obesity of all developed countries, the Food and Drug Administration has announced it will unveil alterations to the nutritional fact labels on food. The agency has been looking to revise these labels since 2003, facing down stiff opposition from those within the food industry. So don't expect a grand overhaul, but rather a shift toward more useful nutritional information on foods that millions of us eat every single day.
The changes could come as early as this year.
With obesity numbers being such a concern, making the nutrition facts label more accurate is expected to be a reliable tool that people can use to make better, healthier food choices.
The FDA are worried that current labels are not helpful enough to allow shoppers make smart choices about what they're eating, often in a single sitting, and some of the information on the labels is useless, and needs to be removed.
The FDA wants the new labels to...
- Show accurate portion sizes - e.g. a 20 ounce soda would be listed as single serving instead of the 2.5 portions it states now.
- This means calorie counts would be more accurate, and more prominent than they are now.
- Scale back the visibility of the daily % values of nutrients such as fat and salt.
- Remove the total calories from fat
Created back in 1992, the nutrition label is long overdue for an overhaul, and there is no shortage of concepts for improving it.
The University of California, Berkeley and Good Magazine brought forward a remarkable 60 original designs. Red, yellow and green, like traffic lights, was a familiar visual system used to signal if a food was good or bad. Thumbs up and thumbs down was another cue used in many of the designs. The winning concept has large blocks of color with each block representing a single ingredient in the food.
On the other side, the Grocery Manufacturers Association (a group that includes 300 top companies) representing the food industry interests has tried to convince the FDA to abandon many of the changes.
They say the 20-year-old labels are familiar to consumers and adaptable to packaging of different sizes. The industry has been successful in keeping some changes from being implemented - listing the amount of preservatives and the amount of processing food has had. Advocates worry that the manufacturers and the government agency are far too close for comfort... or meaningful change.
Others point out that it's against the food industry interests to help buyers make better choices, because this will mean they sell less product. If people are going to lose weight, after all, they'll eat less, and this isn't good business for food manufacturers.
Years ago you would have to chew 20 to 30 times per bite, today so many foods are so highly processed and so stimulating to taste buds they go down in a swish of saliva... almost like adult baby food.
Though all processing isn't bad (skim milk, lean meat and frozen veggies are examples where it's a benefit) knowing how many steps food has gone through would certainly be helpful.
Watch for more news once the FDA reveals the new nutritional fact labels.
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