The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the introduction of a new nutrition-facts panel on the back of the packaged food and beverage products which will now carry information on sugar content added by manufacturers and recommended daily intake.
The move to update nutritional information for most packaged goods sold in the US is intended to help people to make better decisions about the foods they choose to eat and feed their families.
The new nutrition label will carry a modernised design which will highlight calories and servings, the important elements that play a crucial role in making informed choices.
The label will also feature requirements for serving sizes which reflect the amounts of food which people currently eat.
For added sugars, the label will be required to carry declaration of grams and a percent daily value (%DV) to inform customers the amount of sugar that has been added to the product.
The dual column labels will indicate 'per serving' and 'per package' calorie and nutrition information for some multi-serving food products which could be consumed in one sitting or multiple sittings.
Dual column labels are intended to make people understand as to how many calories and nutrients they would be getting if they eat or drink the entire package at one time.
The label will also carry declaration on vitamin D and potassium to include actual gram amount apart from the %DV.
The %DV for calcium and iron will also be required along with actual gram amount. However, vitamin A and C will not be required as deficiencies of these vitamins are rare, but they can be included voluntarily, according to the new norms.
While the label will continue to carry 'total fat', 'saturated fat', and 'trans fat' information, 'calories from fat' will be eliminated as research indicates that the type of fat is more important than the amount of it, the FDA said.
There would also be an abbreviated note to elucidate %DV.
FDA is also asking food manufacturers to make slight changes to the supplement facts label which is found on dietary supplements to help make it more consistent with the nutrition facts label.
Food manufacturers would be required to use the new label by 26 July 2018. The manufacturers with less than $10m in annual food sales will have another year to comply with the new rules. The FDA plans to carry out awareness and education programs on the new requirements.
