The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issues a newly designed nutrition facts label for packaged foods sold in the U.S. which highlights certain areas such as calories, total fat and sodium.
The purpose of the redesign was purportedly to help people make informed decisions about the foods they eat and feed their families. “This is going to make a real difference in providing families across the country the information they need to make healthy choices,” said First Lady Michelle Obama.
Most food manufacturers will be required to use the new label by July 26, 2018. Manufacturers with less than $10 million in annual food sales will have an additional year to comply with the new rules.
The new Nutrition Facts label will include; an updated design to highlight “calories” and “servings,”; Requirements for serving sizes that more closely reflect the amounts of food that people currently eat; Declaration of grams and a percent daily value (%DV) for “added sugars”; “Dual column” labels to indicate both “per serving” and “per package” calorie and nutrition information for certain multi-serving food products that could be consumed in one sitting or multiple sittings; Updated daily values for nutrients like sodium, dietary fiber and vitamin D, consistent with Institute of Medicine recommendations and the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans; Declaration of Vitamin D and potassium that will include the actual gram amount; while “Calories from Fat” will be removed because research shows the type of fat is more important than the amount.
