Keep An Eye on Those Food Nutrition Labels: Changes Coming

The Nutrition Label About To Enjoy a Makeover

Local mom Kathleen Clark is excited about the proposed FDA changes to nutrition labels. The comprehensive changes include:

• Reformatting the label so it is easier to read

• Requiring accurate serving size information

• Labeling added sugar in a separate row

• Replacing Vitamin A and Calcium with Vitamin D and Potassium percentages as required nutrient information

Clark writes: Food manufacturers will have a two year period to comply with the new guidelines once they are enacted. The FDA is adamant they are not trying to dictate what people eat by changing the labels. Instead they are hoping to utilize modern serving sizes and more in-depth health studies and research on what people need as a daily nutritional requirement to stay healthy and combat chronic diet issues.

Accurate serving sizes will make it easier to judge how much food you are consuming. For example, a medium bag of chips would fall into the category of requiring a dual column format—per serving and per package. This would be required if a package contains at least two times the serving size and less than or equal to four times the serving size.

I am hopeful we will see more “No Added Sugar” on packages after these changes take place. A “No Added Sugar” label would certainly make it easier to see what is naturally in a product and how much sugar has been added.

For more information on the nutrition label changes, check out Springfield Moms premium sponsor Memorial Medical Center’s Live Well online magazine post “Teaching a Nutrition Label New Tricks.”