In the 20 years since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last updated the nutrition-facts label on packaged foods, American eating habits have been supersized, snackified and everything in between. The new iteration of the label takes to task the often-nebulous portion sizing and also forces manufacturers to differentiate between added and naturally occurring sugars.
In May 2016, after a comment period garnering more than 300,000 responses from manufacturers, advocacy groups and others, the FDA finalized the new label, which food manufacturers must begin using by July 26, 2018. Manufacturers with less than $10 million in annual food sales will have an additional year in which to comply.
“New science has emerged in recent years, changing our views on the links between diet, chronic diseases and public health,” said Doug Balentine, director of the FDA’s Office of Nutrition and Food Labeling at the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Washington, D.C., during a late June webinar on the new label. “People have changed how they’re eating, and portion sizes have changed.”
The new regulations target package sizes that could be consumed in multiple sittings or just one. (See sidebar below for a breakdown of the changes.) The final rule also includes a record-keeping requirement for manufacturers to document compliance—an action reminiscent of some of the latest changes to the Food Safety Modernization Act and the FDA’s push for proof in all things regulatory.
Manufacturer Support
Manufacturers appear to be cautiously supportive of the new label, and its arrival coincides with initiatives and steps they are taking to ride trends in healthier eating. Snack makers such as Mars, The Hershey Co., Nestlé and Kellogg Co. are using simpler ingredients or removing artificial ones, and many have prioritized “better-for-you” products in their new-product pipelines.
“[We] will be reviewing them in detail,” said Kimberly Fontes, senior manager of communications for North America for Mondelez Global Inc., East Hanover, N.J., of the new regulations. “We believe that these new guidelines will help consumers make a more informed choice for their well-being.”
“Nestlé supports food labeling that is based on sound science and presented in a simple, useful manner to help best serve consumers,” said Paul Bakus, president of Nestlé corporate affairs for Glendale, Calif.-based Nestle USA Inc., in a press release. “Nestlé has always been in favor of giving calories more prominence, and we support the increased font size for calories in the Nutrition Facts panel. … Nestlé supports changes in serving sizes to more accurately reflect what and how much people are eating.”
The label changes “will take some time to fully assess,” says Bridget Christenson, manager of global communications for General Mills, Minneapolis. “The FDA’s announcement reinforces our longstanding commitment to providing clear nutritional information on our products, and to reducing overall sugar across our portfolio.”
“Making nutrition guidance clear to consumers is the right thing to do, and we applaud the FDA for proposing transparent labeling,” Hackettstown, N.J.-based Mars Chocolate North America said in a statement provided to CSP. “The most significant proposed changes to the [label] that will impact Mars products are the addition of an added-sugars declaration and a daily value for added sugars.”
Sweet Review
The change to sugar labeling is among the more seismic changes to the label, and it’s one that’s occurring alongside manufacturers’ own initiatives around sugar content.
General Mills has “steadily reduced sugar in the food we make,” says Christenson. And Mars last year announced its full support for the inclusion of an “added sugars” declaration. “We believe taking a stance helps to progress transparency and consumer understanding of critical nutrition information,” the company said.
Others in the snack industry, however, have expressed concern about the new label. In official comments on the proposed label changes in October 2015, Alison Bodor, executive vice president of the National Confectioners Association, Washington, D.C., said the new label “decreased the ability of some participants to correctly identify the quantity of total sugars in a food,” citing a study that showed some people believed that “added sugars” should be added to “total sugars” to determine a food’s total sugars content.
“Since the majority of sugars in candy products are added, this consumer misunderstanding is particularly troubling to the confectionery industry,” she said. “While consumers expect candy products to contain sugar, it is not helpful if the label misleads consumers to believe there is as much as double the amount of total sugars in a product than is actually the case.”
Addressing this issue during the FDA webinar, Balentine said the new label has added the word “includes” to help clarify that “added sugars” is a subcomponent of total sugars, and changed “sugars” to “total sugars.” It also indented the “added sugars” line and included a hairline between “total sugars” and “added sugars” to distinguish them.
What’s on the New Label?
The new Nutrition Facts label, in a larger font, requires:
- Serving sizes that more closely reflect the amounts of food people actually eat.
- Declaration of grams and a percent daily value (%DV) for “added sugars” (vs. naturally occurring sugars).
- “Dual column” labels to indicate both “per serving” and “per package” calorie and nutrition information for certain multiserving foods.
- Packages that are between one and two servings to be labeled as one serving because people typically consume them in one sitting.
- Updated daily values for nutrients such as sodium, dietary fıber and vitamin D.
- Declaration of vitamin D and potassium. This will include the actual gram amount in addition to the %DV. The law will continue to require %DV for calcium and iron, along with the actual gram amount, but it will no longer require vitamins A and C.
- “Calories from fat” to be removed because research shows the type of fat is more important than the amount. The listing of “total fat,” “saturated fat” and “trans fat” will still be required.
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