The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealed the newly redesigned label for packaged food and goods today after a near decade long battle, partially thanks to White House support and legislation.
Food manufacturers are required to comply with new nutritional information packaging by July 26th, 2018, unless they post less than $10 million in annual food sales, in which case they are given until the same date in 2019.
What’s New?
The most noticeable changes include a bigger, bolder caloric intake number at the top, updated serving sizes reflecting the larger portions consumed (last updated in 1993), and a daily percentage value for Total Sugars, including new Added Sugars information. The update to sugar has unquestionably featured the most controversy.
Vitamins will also see a revision, as vitamin D and potassium join the club alongside iron and calcium. Long-time required vitamins A and C will no longer be mandatory for labels, backed by scientific rationale that Americans rarely see a deficiency in these building blocks.
As always, The Label Experts are prepared for the upcoming changes to nutrition labeling and look to provide regulated printing templates come 2018. We’re certainly no strangers to newly mandated labeling procedures or even obtaining correct nutritional information either!