WASHINGTON – Last week the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced changes to the Nutrition Facts panel on food products nationwide, giving most food manufacturers until July 26, 2018, to be using the new panel, while manufacturers with less than $10 million in annual food sales will have an additional year to comply with the new rules.
The Nutrition Facts label was introduced more than 20 years ago to help consumers make informed food choices. In March 2014, the FDA proposed two rules to update the label, and in July 2015, issued a supplemental proposed rule. The Nutrition Facts label regulations apply to packaged foods except certain meat, poultry and processed egg products, which are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the changes are the “the most radical overhaul of nutrition policy in decades, putting sugar squarely in their crosshairs in an attempt to change how Americans eat and drink.” The panel will list how many grams of sugar have been added to the product, and 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,” according to the FDA.
“The FDA’s decision to break out added sugar from the total sugar count already on packaging culminates a yearslong push by the Obama administration into stiff opposition from food and beverage companies, which say there is no difference between naturally present sugars and added sugars,” writes the Journal, adding that the crack-down on sugar “is expected to deal a big blow to food and beverage makers.”
The news source also notes that according to the government, the biggest sources of added sugars are (in descending order) soda, energy and sports drinks, grain-based desserts, sugar-sweetened fruit drinks, dairy-based desserts and candy.
Nutritional labels have been relatively unchanged since 1994, except for the addition of transfats in 2006. Read more on the FDA’s announcement at FDA.gov.