What Are the Facts on the New Nutrition Facts Label?

Picture a common scenario: standing in the grocery store, trying to decide between two food products—what do you do? If you’re like most consumers, you probably turn the package over to examine the Nutrition Facts label and base your decision on calorie or fat content (or, if you’re like me, you discard both options and head for the dessert aisle instead).  The Nutrition Facts label, found on most food packages in the US, serves as a guide to help consumers make informed food choices and practice healthy dietary habits. However, it can be incredibly hard to understand! If you’ve ever argued with yourself in the middle of the store trying to decode the label (and scared a Publix employee in the process), you’ll be happy to know that it is about to get a major facelift.

Why the sudden fuss over this image that we’ve come to accept as an unavoidable component of food packaging? For starters, the current label, introduced more than 20 years ago, does not reflect the current food environment of the average consumer.  In other words, the serving sizes shown on the current labels are no longer relevant to the dietary habits of today’s society. The proposed changes take people's actual eating behavior into account and the new label aims to provide a greater understanding of nutrition science with a refreshed design that is easier to read.

What Exactly are the Changes?

 Greater Understanding of Nutrition Science 

•  The new labels require information about “added sugars,” which can decrease the intake of nutrient-rich foods while increasing calorie intake.
•  Updated daily values for nutrients like sodium, dietary fiber, and vitamin D will be included on the label to help consumers understand the nutrient information in the context of a total daily diet.
•  Manufacturers will be required to state the amount of potassium and vitamin D on the label, because they are considered “nutrients of public health significance.”
•  The term “calories from fat” will be removed, because research shows the type of fat consumed is more important than the amount.

      Updated Serving Size Requirements and New Labeling Requirements for Certain Package Sizes

•  Serving sizes will reflect how consumers eat and drink today. The label information must be based on what people actually eat.
•  Packaged food and drinks that are typically eaten in one sitting, such as a 20-oz soda, must be labeled as a single serving with calorie and nutrient information to reflect the entire package.
•  For certain packages that are larger and could be consumed in one sitting or multiple sittings, manufacturers must provide “dual column” labels to indicate both “per serving” and “per package” calories and nutrient information—for example, a 24-oz soda or a pint of ice cream.

      Refreshed Design

•  Calories and serving sizes will be more prominent in order to emphasize parts of the label that are more important for public health.
•  The Percent Daily Value will be on the left of the label so that it is read first.
•  The label footnote will be changed to more clearly explain the meaning of the Percent Daily Value. 

The Next Step

Will the new Nutrition Facts label really be that much more helpful than the current one? Results from a recent Georgetown Institute for Consumer Research (GICR) study suggest so. In an attempt to investigate how helpful the current and the proposed new labels are to consumers, the researchers presented 830 participants with various items and asked them how healthy they perceived each to be. The items—a 20 oz bottle of soda, a frozen pizza, and an 8-oz bag of chips—were accompanied by either the current Nutrition Facts label, the proposed label, or an alternate proposed label. Consumers were randomly assigned to view one type of label. In addition, the label information was presented for either 10 seconds (to mimic an in-store viewing) or for an unlimited amount of time. The results suggest that the proposed labels were more helpful than the current label when given a brief, 10-second timeframe. This rapid encounter reflects the amount of time that a consumer would realistically spend looking at labels while shopping—hence, the proposed labels could make eating healthier an easier task for shoppers.

Of course, as with any change in consumer products, new information warrants a need for education on the label changes. What do you think of the proposed label changes? Will it be easier for consumers to make healthy choices at the grocery store? Or, has the FDA uncovered a whole new set of problems? No matter what your feelings are on the issue, you won’t see these changes until at least August 1^st, 2014.

~Jenna Norris

Sources:

• MacMunn A, O’Malley R. As Advocates for Improvements on Food Labels, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Supports FDA's Proposed Label Changes, Calls for Nutrition Education for Consumers. AND web site. Available at: http://www.eatright.org/Media/content.aspx?id=6442480118#.U4SLjJRdVSa. Published February 27, 2014. Accessed May 23, 2014.
• Proposed Changes to the Nutrition Facts Label. FDA web site. Available at: http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/GuidanceDocumentsRegulatoryInformation/LabelingNutrition/ucm385663.htm. Published May 2014. Accessed May 23, 2014.
• Hennessy M. Proposed Nutrition Labels More Effective Than Current Labels: Survey. Food Navigator web site. Available at: http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/R-D/Proposed-nutrition-labels-more-effective-than-current-labels-survey. Published May 22, 2014. Accessed May 23, 2014.