Nutritional red flags about your favorite junk foods may quickly become difficult to ignore.
This week, the Food and Drug Administration announced the long-awaited marriage proposal This would require food and beverage manufacturers to display nutrition labels on the front of most packages, with the goal of helping shoppers make healthier choices as they walk through grocery store aisles. It turns out.
“The time has come for consumers to see it, pick it up and use it right away,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement. “We can do that by adding nutrition labels to the front of the package on most packaged foods.”
The proposal would require front-of-pack labels to indicate how much of each serving contains the recommended daily intake of these three nutrients and whether each food is “low,” “medium,” or “high.” It will show you if there is.
The label takes the form of a black and white box. The design is 2023 FDA Investigation We’ve found that it helps people make faster and more accurate decisions about a food’s health status compared to other label styles.
The FDA says the front label complements, not replaces, the existing, more detailed nutritional information on the back of the package.
It will be up to the incoming Trump administration to finalize this proposal.
Peter G. Lurie, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, applauded the move, saying:long time no see”This could encourage consumers to make healthier choices, push companies to produce healthier products, and help fight the growing wave of preventable diseases in the United States, he said. He said that there is.
Reaction from the food and beverage industry was even more muted.
“FDA’s proposed rule on front-of-pack nutrition labeling is based on an opaque methodology and a disregard for industry input and collaboration,” said Sarah Gallo, senior vice president of product policy at the Consumer Brands Association, which represents major food manufacturers. It seems like there is.” packaged goods.
The proposed label would be part of a large-scale, government-wide effort to curb diet-related chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, which are the leading cause of death in the United States and a significant driver of health care costs. This is part of our efforts.
A growing body of evidence shows that the main culprits for the increase in these symptoms are excessive intake of sodium, saturated fat, and added sugars.
President-elect Donald Trump has made fighting chronic disease a top health priority. his choice Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who became Secretary of Health and Human Services, has long campaigned against the use of preservatives and chemicals in American food. Promoting nationwide crackdown.
If the rule is finalized, food manufacturers with annual sales of $10 million or more will be required to comply for three years, while small businesses will be required to comply for four years. .
But do these labels actually change the way Americans eat? The jury is still out.
In 2010, when Congress passed a law requiring chain restaurants to label calories, Results were mixed. a 2016 review of 38 studies It had little overall impact on consumer behavior, leading researchers to conclude that it is not an effective tool to promote healthier food choices.
Even if labels don’t change the way people shop or eat, there is evidence that labels can make some changes in the food industry.
Take Chile, for example: When the country passed a law requiring manufacturers to put warning labels on foods high in sodium, sugar, unhealthy fats, and calories, the results were surprising.
Research shows that within just one year, the percentage of foods high in sugar decreased from 80% to 60%, and the percentage of foods high in sodium decreased from 74% to 27%. 2020 survey.
