Updates to Nutrition Facts Label

On February 27th, 2014 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration published several proposed updates to the Nutrition Facts label found on the majority of packaged foods in the United States. According to the FDA Guidance and Regulation page, the proposed changes include the following: Greater understanding of nutritional science Updated serving size requirements and new labeling requirements for certain package sizes Refreshed design In order to encourage a greater understanding of nutritional science, the FDA will require that labels include information about added sugars, updated daily values, the amount of potassium and Vitamin D, as well as continuing to include “Total Fat”, “Saturated Fat”, and “Trans Fat” amounts while “Calories from Fat” will be removed. The serving size requirements will be changed to reflect how people currently eat and drink, which is vastly different than 20 years ago–when serving sizes were first established. Serving size on labels will now include “what people actually eat, not what they ‘should’ be eating”. In addition, items usually consumed in a single sitting (ie, 20 oz sodas) will now be labeled as one serving instead of multiple. Larger packages that are usually consumed in multiple sittings will include “dual column” labels to include nutrition information for per serving as well as per package. The new design of the label will feature larger text for c...
Source: Network News - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Consumer Health General (all entries) Public Health Source Type: news