Skip to content
Health
Link copied to clipboard

Over-consumers beware: New food labels are on the way

Somewhere this weekend, the lovelorn, the lonely, the lustful will stand alone before an open freezer with a single spoon, ready to plunge into the consolation only an entire container of something creamy with fudge ribbons and caramel swirls can bring.

Somewhere this weekend, the lovelorn, the lonely, the lustful will stand alone before an open freezer with a single spoon, ready to plunge into the consolation only an entire container of something creamy with fudge ribbons and caramel swirls can bring.

Ignoring the calories, the fat grams, the added sugars on the label is easy. Who can read that tiny type at such a time?

Over-consumers are about to have a tougher time looking the other way.

First Lady Michelle Obama and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Friday the long-awaited overhaul of the familiar Nutrition Facts labels. The end result will be to give consumers a much better idea of what they are eating. The hope is that as Americans become more aware, they may make healthier, less fattening choices.

Several of the main changes:

1) Serving sizes get real. Forget about those 1/2-cup servings of ice cream and 1-ounce servings of cereal on the old labels. Manufacturers will have to give nutrition information on a serving closer to what people really eat.

2) Calories. The figure - which will be higher to correlate with the bigger serving size - will also be in larger type. This presumably will make it harder to ignore.

3) Added sugars. Manufacturers will have to tell you how much sugar has been added and what percentage of the daily recommended calorie allowance it represents. This matters, because as the FDA puts it: "It is difficult to meet nutrient needs while staying within calorie limits if you consume more than 10 percent of your total daily calories from added sugars"

4) Multiple servings. In addition to "normal" serving sizes, labels must also include nutrition information for the entire package of items such as a 3-ounce bag of chips or a pint of ice cream. This change reflects the fact that many people consider those to be single-serving sizes.

5) Double servings. Similarly, packages that in the past were considered to have two servings (like a 20-ounce soda) must be labeled as if that were just one serving.

6) "Calories from fat" will be removed, while "Total Fat," "Saturated Fat," and "Trans Fat" will remain. That's because of research indicating that the type of fat consumed is more important than the amount to overall health.

Other updates include changes to values like certain vitamins as well as sodium. For more information, go to the FDA's website: www.fda.gov/Food.

Most food manufacturers will be required to use the new label by July 26, 2018. Manufacturers with less than $10 million in annual food sales will have another year to comply.

The changes to the 20-year-old labels sparked outrage from some quarters, including food manufacturers who claimed the new labeling unfairly vilifies sugar.

Other groups, however, applauded the changes, and so did Philadelphia-area nutrition experts.

"I think transparency is important to consumers," said Katie Cavuto, a registered dietition who works with the Phillies, the Flyers and a breast cancer support organization.

The new information - like the amount of added sugar, for example - will be put to good use by concerned customers.

"Hopefully it will encourage them to make better food choices," Cavuto said.

Stella Volpe, chair of nutrition science at Drexel University who is working with area schoolchildren, likes the clarity of the labels.

"Parents can use these as a teaching tool," she said.

With the nutritional information clear and at hand, people might choose to make a different food purchase or elect to go for a walk and then take a smaller portion, she said.

Sometimes, though, the container calls, regardless of the Nutrition Facts label. Restraint becomes a fight for another day.

"If you're going to eat it," Volpe said, "then enjoy it."

rgiordano@phillynews.com

215-854-2391

@ritagiordano