The FDA is proposing recent food labels with detailed information about sugar, fat and salt content

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday proposed requiring recent nutrition facts labels on the front of food and beverage products, a long-awaited move aimed at changing eating habits linked to skyrocketing rates of obesity and diet-related diseases, each of which is cause of one million deaths. year.

The new labela tiny black and white box, similar to the nutrition facts box found on the back of packaged goods, designed to facilitate consumers quickly identify which products contain excessive amounts of sugar, salt and saturated fat. These three nutrients are linked to rapidly increasing cases of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure in the country.

According to the FDA, more than 60 percent of American adults suffer from these three chronic diseases, with annual health care costs estimated at $4.5 trillion

Unlike mandatory back-of-pack nutrition facts panels, which list a product’s ingredients, calorie count and serving size, front-of-pack labels rated sugar, fat and salt content as high, medium or low to indicate whether amounts exceed or are less than the recommended daily values ​​established by the FDA

“Almost everyone knows someone who has or cares for a chronic disease that is caused, in part, by the foods we eat,” Dr. Robert Califf, FDA commissioner, said in a statement. “It’s time to make it easier for consumers to look, grab and leave.”

The proposal follows three years of research by agency scientists who looked at front-of-pack labels used in other countries. After reviewing research on the effectiveness of these labels, the FDA tested potential designs with focus groups to determine whether the information they conveyed was straightforward to understand.

The agency said the proposed recent labels received the highest ratings among 10,000 people who participated in focus groups.

If the regulations are finalized, food businesses will have up to four years to comply. It is unclear whether they will continue under the recent Trump administration.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, has been vocal about the country’s growing reliance on ultra-processed foods and promised to change American eating habits.

Nutrition experts said they were generally pleased with the look and content of the recent labels. Some expressed disappointment that labels did not include stronger warnings when a product contained unhealthy levels of salt, sugar and saturated fat. Some also pushed the FDA to include calorie information.

“This proposal is a real step forward in our efforts to better inform consumers, although we regret that the administration has not chosen a nutritional warning format that is more likely to positively influence purchasing decisions,” said Peter Lurie, executive director of food safety at Center for Science in the Public Interestan advocacy group that first asked the FDA in 2006 to adopt front-of-pack labels.

Food companies criticized the recent rule, saying they would prefer an industry-developed version of the so-called Facts in frontvoluntary labeling system introduced in 2011

In a statement, Sarah Gallo, senior vice president of product policy at the Consumer Brands Association, which represents many companies, said the proposed labels were missing crucial information such as calorie counts and whether the product contains high levels of key nutrients. robust diet.

“FDA’s proposed FOP nutrition labeling rule appears to be based on an muddy methodology and a disregard for industry input and cooperation,” Ms. Gallo said.

The announcement, issued at the end of the Biden administration’s term, follows two decades of pressure from nutritionists, doctors and public health advocates who have long urged the federal government to take a more assertive role in helping consumers make healthier choices as they make their way to the supermarket aisle.

The recent front-of-pack rules complement other recent FDA efforts to improve the nation’s eating habits. Last month, the agency updated definitions of the term “robust” on food labels, tightening limits on saturated fat, sugar and salt in foods. In August, the FDA issued voluntary guidelines aimed at putting pressure on food manufacturers to reduce the sodium content of processed and packaged products.

Experts say mandatory front-of-pack labeling could also encourage food manufacturers to reformulate products with high levels of unhealthy nutrients.

“If you’re a retailer and you’re selling something that’s just above the threshold, you have a huge incentive to add a little sugar to your breakfast cereal to keep it from being high-labeled,” said Anna Grummon, director of Stanford Food Policy Lab. “It’s a victory for consumers.”

A number of studies have highlighted the limitations of the Nutrition Facts panel, which was introduced in the mid-1990s. Lauren Fiechtner, the company’s director of nutrition General Children’s Hospitalfound that many Americans, especially those with lower levels of education, have difficulty understanding existing labels. Research has shown that label references to the percentage of a given nutrient in the recommended daily value are most misleading.

“When I’m running down the aisle at the grocery store with my two juvenile children, it’s a challenge for me to flip through each package and understand the labels, and that’s my job,” Dr. Fiechtner said. “Consumers want to be informed, but you have to keep it straightforward.”

Since 2016, when Chile became the first country to require packaged food companies to prominently display black warning logos on the front of packages, more than a dozen countries have adopted similar labels. According to the report, these are Canada, Australia, Ecuador and the United Kingdom Global Food Research Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Nancy Glick, the company’s director of food and nutrition policy National Consumer Leaguestudies have shown that so-called interpretive labels influence consumer behavior. “These labels work and we’ve found that people really want them,” she said.

Xaq Frohlich, professor of history at Auburn University and author of the book “From label to table: America’s food regulation in the information age” had a somewhat cynical approach to recent labels. He noted that the food industry has historically found ways to comply with labeling requirements by reformulating products in ways that are not necessarily healthier for consumers.

As an example, he said that producers of ultra-processed foods can replace added sugar with an artificial sweetener, which will allow them to avoid the “high” label. However, in his opinion, changing the composition will not make the product much healthier.

“It’s really tough to create a perfect labeling system that doesn’t create problems and unintended consequences,” he said. “There are bona fide actors in the food industry who actually apply these labels to make their products healthier, but there are also many bad faith actors who modify their processed foods to make them look good on the label but actually prevailed does not meet the spirit of FDA and public health experts’ expectations.”