Meat&Poultry -- April 2014 - 16

Washington
by bERNARD SHIRE

meatpoultry@sosland.com

Nutritional facts, not finished
T

he US Food and Drug Adminis-

the entire package, in addition to only

lish system. FDA needs to get rid of

tration (FDA) is giving the pub-

per serving, on certain products that

grams and convert them to ounces

lic until the end of May to react to the

contain more than one serving size,

and pounds because even though most

proposals it has made to revamp and

but that could be consumed in one

of the world uses the metric system,

update the agency's nutritional facts

sitting or more than one sitting. The

the US doesn't. Even though weight

labeling on packaged-food products.

agency would remove "calories from

should be measured in grams or kilo-

The purpose of the changes is to re-

fat" from labels, because research has

grams, not pounds or ounces and vol-

flect new public health and scientific

shown the type of fat is more impor-

ume in liters or milliliters, not quarts,

information, including the link be-

tant than the amount. But "total fat,"

cups or ounces, most people in the

tween diet and chronic diseases.

"saturated fat" and "trans fat" would

United States don't understand the

still be required on the labels.

metric system, which means they don't

The proposed label would also
modernize out-of-date serving size

The changes would require the dec-

understand some of the information

requirements to make them closer to

laration of vitamin D and potassium

on the labels they are trying to read.

what people really eat. The new labels

on the label if they are present because

The FDA wants Americans to

will also feature a fresh design to high-

according to FDA, some consumers

make more sense of the nutritional

light key parts of the nutritional label,

are not eating adequate amounts of

facts labeling they see when they pick

including serving sizes and calories.

this vitamin and mineral, which puts

up food items to purchase. So while

Changes being proposed during

them at higher risk for chronic disease.

the agency has taken some first steps

the 90-day period (ending June 2) in-

But there are some other parts of the

to modernize, update and put more

clude requiring information about a

FDA nutritional labels that the agency

relevant information on these packag-

food product's "added sugars." This

is not looking at and should. There are

es, it needs to take another look at the

idea is based on expert recommenda-

some food packages that would not be

changes it is proposing and come up

tions, including those from the 2010

affected by the changes, particularly

with some additional ones that would

Dietary Guidelines for Americans, that

some packages containing meat, poul-

make the labels more understandable

Americans should reduce their intake

try and processed-egg products, be-

and meaningful to the public.

of calories from sugar added to food.

cause they are regulated by the USDA,

Another change is updated ref-

instead of the FDA.

Much of the public pays little or no
attention to the nutritional facts labels

erence amounts of foods, which are

because the current information on

used by food manufacturers to de-

ments that should be made, basic im-

them is complex. FDA needs to make

cide serving sizes. Data now shows

provements that would make the la-

the labels easier for the average con-

the consumption of food products has

bels more understandable than they

sumer to understand, and that goes

changed over the past 20 years, from

are now. One change the agency

beyond just making the type bigger. ■

when the nutritional labeling began.

should make is to convert the infor-

Another change would be presenting

mation currently on labels from the

nutrition and calorie information for

16

In fact, there are other improve-

metric system of weights to the Eng-

* Meat&Poultry * April 2014 * www.MeatPoultry.com

Bernard Shire, based in Lancaster, Pa., is M&P's
Washington correspondent. He also works as a
food safety consultant.
Meat&Poultry -- April 2014

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