FDA food labeling advice overview:
- Who: The Center for Science in the Public Interest and other health groups have asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make additional “interpretive” nutrient information mandatory on the labels of food packaging.
- Why: The consumer health groups say the current food labeling requirements are insufficient to promote healthy diets.
- Where: The FDA food labeling requirements are effective in the United States.
A coalition of consumer health watchdog groups petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to change how food labeling is done in the United States to encourage Americans to eat a healthier diet.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Association of SNAP Nutrition Education Administrators and the Association of State Public Health Nutritionists filed the citizen petition with the FDA Aug. 5.
The consumer health watchdogs say Americans in general have poor diet quality and high rates of diet-related chronic disease. They said current packaging laws requiring companies to state “just the facts” about the nutritional information wasn’t helping.
They asked the FDA to mandate food packaging to contain “interpretive” labels informing consumers about high levels of sugar, sodium and saturated fat in products, as well as other nutritional information to help Americans maintain healthy diets.
“Current U.S. food labeling requirements and voluntary industry initiatives are insufficient to promote healthy diets,” the watchdogs say.
Labels that are “interpretive” about the nutrients in the products—for example, using a traffic light system indicating “red” for high sodium content—can improve consumer understanding and encourage healthier diets, they say.
FDA food labeling should include nutrient warnings, traffic light system, petition states
The petitioners request that the FDA amend part 101 of title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations to require the proposed easy-to-understand, standardized and interpretive system.
They argued that, in experimental studies, nutrient warnings identifying foods as containing high levels of nutrients, like sugars, sodium and saturated fat, and traffic light labels improved participants’ ability to identify foods with excess nutrients. This was in comparison to those looking solely at a Nutrition Facts label.
The petitioners say the high rates of diet-related disease in the United States justify implementing the new FDA food labeling system.
The watchdogs also argue that the new labeling can be designed in a manner that would not unduly burden food manufacturers or drown out their other messaging. They add that studies modeling the effects of previous food labeling and reformulation efforts have found that the benefits outweighed the costs.
“In 2018, FDA estimated that the 2016 changes to food and supplement labeling, including to the Nutrition Facts Label, would cost $4.8 billion and produce $33.1 billion in cost savings over 20 years,” the petition states.
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