Food and Drug Administration Issued Its long-awaited proposal on Tuesday would require food manufacturers to put certain nutrition facts on the front of packages in an effort to nudge Americans and food companies toward healthier diets, in line with similar efforts in other countries.
The FDA's new “Nutrition Information Box” focuses on telling people whether the levels of saturated fat, sodium and added sugar are “high” or “medium” or “low” as well as the percentage for each serving.
Food and Drug Administration
This proposal will be open for public comment for 120 days. It will be up to the incoming Trump administration whether and how to finalize the rule.
After that, the F.D.A. They say Large food companies making more than $10 million annually will have three years to comply with the rule. Smaller food brands will have an additional year.
The FDA estimates that the food industry will spend up to $154 million over the next decade to relabel its products with the new boxes.
The agency also estimates that many food brands could spend millions of dollars reformulating their products, changing their recipes so that they are not touted as having too many unhealthy nutrients.
Rebecca Buckner, associate deputy director for human food policy at the FDA, said, “We recognize that there may be manufacturers who may want to make improvements to move from a high range to a medium range or from a medium range to a low range.” Journalists on Tuesday.
Food and Drug Administration
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been selected by President-elect Trump to head the federal department that oversees the FDA. sharply critical Federal nutrition officials have been criticized for not doing enough to help Americans eat healthy diets and crack down on the food industry.
Kennedy did not specifically address the proposal. A spokesman for Kennedy did not respond to a request for comment.
Why just saturated fat, sodium and added sugars?
The FDA said it would require only saturated fat, sodium and added sugars to be in the box. Food manufacturers will not be able to put other nutrients inside the FDA's information box.
He cited research showing that “it is easier for consumers to come up with simple plans” to limit the box to just these three worrisome unhealthy nutrients.
The designs they tested with focus groups that included nutrients Americans need more of, like fiber and calcium, were confusing to participants.
The FDA said it is still considering whether calories should be included on labels and acknowledged that some food brands are already voluntarily listing the information up front.
What determines “high,” “medium,” and “low” levels?
FDA officials said Tuesday that levels of saturated fat, sodium or added sugars will be considered “high” if they are above 20% of the daily value, a measure of how much Americans eat each day in a “reference” diet. The medium was set between 6% and 19% of the daily value. and low 5% and below.
Agency officials have used these benchmarks for “high” and “low” for decades, dating back to the creation of the Nutrition Facts label in the 1990s.
At that time, officials decided not to include “explanatory statements” in nutrition facts labels. But the agency said recent data shows that many Americans don't understand the percentages.
“It's really based on long-term use,” MacKinnon said.
What does it look like?
The FDA says food manufacturers will be required to place the label “somewhere in the upper third” on the front of the box.
The box also uses the same Helvetica font used in the nutrition facts on the back of the package and must follow more detailed rules to avoid being too small or obscured by other designs on the package.
The FDA said some other design decisions were also omitted during the focus group testing process.
For example, previous mockup Using red, yellow and green colors to call out different levels did not make a statistically significant difference in helping people interpret the box.
Editor's note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the number of days the public comment period remained open. This is 120 days.