The New and Improved Nutrition Facts Label
By: Jamie Hooker
We’ve all been there, standing in the middle of the aisle at the grocery store trying to decipher the Nutrition Facts label on each thing we pull from the shelf. How many calories are in one serving? How many calories are in an actual normal person serving? I don’t know about you, but I feel like Nutrition Facts labels are a bit tricky and questionable.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updated the Nutrition Facts label requirements for most packaged foods sold in the U.S. These new labels will work to make consumer’s lives easier and give a more realistic perspective on how much sugar is being added to their products. These are a few things the new labels will include:
- An updated design to highlight “calories” and “servings”
- Requirements for serving sizes that more closely reflect the amounts of food that people currently eat (normal person serving sizes, like I mentioned before)
- Declaration of grams and a percent daily value (%DV) for “added sugars” to help consumers know how much sugar has been added
- “Dual column” labels to indicate both “per serving” and “per package” calorie and nutrition information for multi-serving food products that could be consumed in one sitting (like an entire box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese…)
- For packages that are between one and two servings, such as a 20 ounce soda, the calories and other nutrients will be required to be labeled as one serving because people typically consume it in one sitting (you’re lying if you say you save the rest for later)
- · “Calories from Fat” will be removed because research shows the type of fat is more important than the amount. “Total Fat”, “Saturated Fat,” and “Trans Fat” will still be required.
The new labels will be required for most food manufacturers by July 26, 2018, but manufacturers with less than $10 million in annual food sales will have an additional year to comply. For more information about the new fo