The nutrition label on your food is about to look different
There are a few important changes
There are a few important changes
- The Food and Drug Administration has released new guidelines for nutrition labels on food.
- The calories and serving sizes are larger, and serving sizes have been retooled.
- Vitamin A and Vitamin C have been replaced by Vitamin D and potassium.
The next time you buy a box of cereal or bag of chips at the grocery store, check the label on the back — the nutrition facts may look a little different.
The Food and Drug Administration nutrition labels would receive a few key tweaks to reflect updated scientific research on keeping a healthy diet. Manufacturers that sell more than $10 million in food a year have until 2020 to adopt the new labels and manufacturers who sell less than that have until 2021 to make the change. Some manufacturers, which make about 10 percent of packages sold, already use the new label, so chances are good it already looks familiar.
One of the biggest changes is the larger font size when it comes to serving size and calories. Plus, serving sizes have been adjusted to reflect how much people actually eat, so hopefully that means the end of a “one cookie” serving size when clearly everyone eats a handful. And when packages contain more than one serving, you’ll see information for each serving and for the whole package. Think a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, for example.
New nutrition labels will also show added sugar because the FDA’s dietary guidelines recommend people consume less than 10 percent of their daily calories from added sugars. They have taken away the “calories from fat” listing because new research shows the type of fat, not the total fat, is what’s important.
The labels have also added Vitamin D and potassium to the nutrients section and removed Vitamin A and Vitamin C. That’s because these days, many Americans don’t get enough of Vitamin D and potassium, but usually get enough Vitamin A and Vitamin C. Additionally, the FDA has clarified what “percent daily value” really means in a footnote.