As more and more food trends tend to turn towards healthier alternatives, it’s imperative to remain conscious of the Nutrition Facts Label. The Food and Drug Administration provide this label for consumers to truly understand their foods, all the way down to the ingredients that they consist of. What many consumers don’t know is that the FDA makes regular changes to this label to improve it through new guidelines. The most recent change was early last year, and this post will include a breakdown of all of the most important changes that were made.
Beginning with one of the first sections of the label, the calorie count per serving has become much more pronounced. This is due to how common it is for younger children to disregard the recommended serving size of their food products. In hopes to make more children cognizant of the label’s suggestions, the value’s font size and style on the label have been changed. Prior to these changes, overlooking this section may have been too easy. Now they’re displayed with the largest and most bold-faced font on the label. This change also came accompanied with a reconsideration of serving sizes based around the way most food products are commonly consumed.
A less noticeable change, but equally as important, is the breakdown of the types of fat each food product is made up of. With new research indicating that the true precursor to obesity rates are the amount of the different types of fat people are consuming, the FDA figured it best to include this information. The label now includes values of saturated, trans, and unsaturated fats for each food product. These same changes are reflected in the inclusion of additional nutrients previously left off the label as well.
Another change that has made the lives of parents that much easier is the addition of the total percentage of calories from sugars in foods and drinks. With this information included, parents have a much easier time deciphering which products marketed to children are actually child friendly. Avoiding these foods and drinks with outrageous amounts of added sugars are a great way to keep children healthy. These changes make it much easier to keep any person, including adults, at their suggested 10% daily calories from added sugars.
All of the changes the FDA make to the label are in service of providing a greater standard of health for individuals in the United States. The way in which families in particular benefit from this information is through preserving the health of their children through a better understanding of the food they’re eating. Before your next purchase in the grocery store, be sure to do another scan of the label on the back. If you’re hoping to find more information regarding these changes, take a moment to check out the infographic paired alongside this post.
Author bio: John Hinchey is VP of Sales for Westfalia Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of logistics solutions for plants, warehouses and distribution centers. He has more than 20 years of experience in manufacturing and warehouse automation.