Americans rely on food labels as the leading source of information regarding calories, carbohydrates, and other nutrients to help them understand more about the foods they eat every day.  It’s been decades since the nutritional label has been updated, and the FDA recently approved the new design of the Nutrition Facts panel.  The improvements have been developed to help consumers understand the accurate information and make informed choices for themselves and their families.  Here is what’s new:

•    Serving sizes.  These have been updated and reflect typical eating behaviors of the consumer.  The serving size is also bolded and in much larger font.
•    Calories.  The amount of calories is also being presented in a bolder and much larger font.  The FDA hopes that this will influence consumers to be more cautious about how much they eat.
•    Added sugars.  An “added sugars” row has been added below the total sugars to determine how much sugar occurs naturally in the food verses how much sugar was added to the product.
•    Fat.  The “Calories from Fat” will now be removed as research shows that it is more important to understand the type of fat that one is consuming.
•    Percent Daily Value.  The Daily Values (DV) have been updated to help evaluate how a particular food fits into the daily recommended amounts.
•    Vitamins and Minerals.  Vitamin D and potassium will now be listed at the bottom of the label while vitamin A and C will be removed.  The reasoning for this is because vitamin A and C deficiencies are rare nowadays.  The panel will also display the gram amount for consumers to easily know.

 Click here to learn how to read a food label.

Resources:
•    http://www.eatright.org/resource/food/nutrition/nutrition-facts-and-food-labels/the-basics-of-the-nutrition-facts-panel
•    http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm502182.htm