Significance of Nutrition Facts Label of Food Products with Critical Updates by FDA on Nutrition Facts Label

Received 16 Aug, 2023

Accepted 30 Sep, 2023

Published 23 Oct, 2023

Background and Objective: Nutrition Facts Label is a mandatory act adopted by FDA to be implemented by all food manufacturers to ensure perfect labeling of all food products with nutritional ingredients provided on the front of pack (FOP) to support healthy eating behaviors. Significance of Nutrition Facts Label with its update by FDA were highlighted here to recommend the implementation of the prompt updating of the Nutrition Facts Label on all food products. Materials and Methods: A survey was carried out in the local markets in three different countries, Egypt, India and Iran in the last 3 years (2020-2022) to check the Nutrition Facts Label on the front of pack (FOP) of different categories of food products to check the consistency and variation in their printing on FOP. The well-structured publications and official documents of FDA were studied thoroughly to extract the valuable updated data to be presented in an informative and concise way. Results: From the recent official document of FDA issued in 2022 regarding the changes on the new nutrition and supplement facts labels, many changes listed beginning with the structure of the Nutrition Facts Label with many changes in daily value of nutrients by increase or decrease with addition of two new nutrients (added sugars and choline) which were not present in FDA, 2018. Conclusion: The current paper successfully presents very important updates on Nutrition Facts Label by FDA to be implemented by all food manufacturers under the control of official regulatory authorities and to be available for all people in order to endorse healthier eating behavior.

INTRODUCTION

The Nutrition Facts Label by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been designed to be implemented by all food manufacturers under the supervision and control of official regulatory authorities to ensure the perfect labeling of all food products with nutritional ingredients and calories per serving to be provided on the front of the pack (FOP) in order to support healthy eating behaviors. Nutrition facts are considered a mandatory act for labeling food products with essential nutrients as fat, carbohydrate, dietary fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals and energy expressed as calories per serving for supporting healthier diets approaches¹.

Nutritional labels still have a limited impact on dietary decisions. A required but insufficient requirement for behavior change is information provision alone. People must do two things: convert information into knowledge and change behavior using that knowledge. The results offer scant evidence for the value of referencing nutrition labels in teaching materials or other sources. The research is encouraging for complementing nutrition labels with interactive digital interventions, such as feedback from shopping carts or monetary incentives. The results as a whole show that more intrusive interventions are needed to motivate people to act on nutrition labels².

The demand for better food processing and innovative value-added products that adhere to the highest quality standards has increased due to changing consumer demands. It’s possible that dietary changes could result in a demand for fewer salt goods, thus the industry must pay close attention to nutritional claims and proper labeling³.

Front-of-pack nutrition labels (FOPLs) are emphasized in global policy conversations, but arguments about the best format run on. The summary and informative label formats are the two main categories. It is recommended that FOPLs in developing nations with mixed to low levels of education be easily recognizable, intelligible and able to influence purchasing decisions⁴.

The majority of added sugar consumed in the United States comes from sugar-sweetened beverages and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently changed the nutrition facts label to reflect this information. The Nutrition Facts Label (NFL) revisions are happening at the same time that some towns have implemented legislation that levies an excise tax on beverages with added sugar. The revised NFL has the potential to modify the demand curve by reducing friction and mental gaps associated with the conveyance of nutrition information, whilst taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages may be successful at changing the quantity required⁵.

The purpose of the current study was to present the critical updates on the structure and information of the Nutrition Facts Label and comparing the original and updated versions. The original version of Nutrition Facts label had been issued by the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration (FDA): September 1994, revised April 2008, revised October 2009, revised January 2013 with the current version issued September 2018⁶ and the new updated label of nutrition facts label had been issued by FDA: March 2020 with the current version issued February 2022⁷.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Study area: A survey was carried out in local markets of three differrent countries, Egypt, India and Iran in the last three years (2020-2022) to check the Nutrition Facts Label on the front of pack (FOP) of different categories of food products to gather useful information about the consistency and variation in the style of printing Nutrition Facts Label on food products including grains such as rice, wheat, oats, corn, barley and fast foods including snacks food e.g., potato chips, popcorn, cookies, biscuits, chocolate, candy, ice cream, crackers, cake, milk, yogurt, nuts and seeds, tea and herbs, juices, along with different dietary supplements. Well-structured publications and official documents of FDA^6,7 were studied thoroughly to extract valuable updated data to be presented in an informative and concise way.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

It is noteworthy to mention the wide range of different categories of food products examined in the markets where the great variation in listing the Nutritiona Facts Label on the front of pack (FOP) was observed. Food products needs to be updated with the correct label according to the last update of Nutrition Facts Label by FDA. Figure 1(a-b) and Table 1 summarize the results of this study as following.

Table 1:

Daily value changes for nutrients

Nutrient	Original daily value	Updated daily value
Daily value increases
Calcium	1000 mg	1300 mg
Dietary fiber	25 g	28 g
Fat	65 g	78 g
Magnesium	400 mg	420 mg
Manganese	2 mg	2.3 mg
Phosphorous	1000 mg	1250 mg
Potassium	3500 mg	4700 mg
Vitamin C	60 mg	90 mg
Vitamin D	400 IU	20 mcg (800 IU)
Vitamin K	80 mcg	120 mcg
Daily value decreases
Biotin	300 mcg	30 mcg
Chloride	3400 mg	2300 mg
Chromium	120 mcg	35 mcg
Copper	2 mg	0.9 mg
Molybdenum	75 mcg	45 mcg
Niacin	20 mg	16 mg
Pantothenic acid	10 mg	5 mg
Riboflavin	1.7 mg	1.3 mg
Selenium	70 mcg	55 mcg
Sodium	2400 mg	2300 mg
Thiamin	1.5 mg	1.2 mg
Total carbohydrate	300 g	275 g
Vitamin A	5000 IU	900 mcg (3000 IU)
Vitamin B6	2 mg	1.7 mg
Vitamin B12	6 mcg	2.4 mcg
Vitamin E	30 IU	15 mg (22.4 IU)
Zinc	15 mg	11 mg
Daily values not changed
Cholesterol	300 mg	300 mg
Iodine	150 mcg	150 mcg
Iron	18 mg	18 mg
Protein	50 g	50 g
Saturated fat	20 g	20 g
New daily values
Added sugars	--	50 g
Choline	--	550 mg
Retrieved from “FDA (2022) daily value on the new nutrition and supplement facts labels”7

Figure 1 illustrates the original label in (a) Nutrition Facts label issued by Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition: September 1994, revised April 2008, revised October 2009, revised January 2013 with the current issue September 2018⁶ and the new label in (b) Nutrition Facts Label by FDA 2022⁷, it is noticed some changes in the structure of the New Label by removing “Calories from Fats” and removing the lower part including the daily values based on 2,000 and 2,500 calories and listing “2,000 calories a day is used for nutrition advice. Also, 2 new rows were added for: Total sugars and added sugars with some modifications on the overall structure. Nutrients present with daily value 5% or less per serving are considered low, whereas, nutrients present with 20% or more are considered high.

From Table 1, it is noticed the different changes in daily value of nutrients, where 10 of them increased (calcium, dietary fiber, fat, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, potassium, vitamin C, D and K), 17 decreased (biotin, chloride, chromium, copper, molybdenum, niacin, pantothenic acid, riboflavin, selenium, sodium, thiamin, total carbohydrate, vitamin A, B₆, B₁₂ and E, zinc), 5 not changed (cholesterol, iodine, iron, protein, saturated fat) and 2 new nutrients (added sugars, choline) appeared. Also, new units for measuring the concentrations of vitamin A, D and E were introduced to measure them in micrograms “mcg” instead of international unit “IU” which had been used for years in the original daily value.

Fig. 1(a-b): Nutrition facts label of chicken pot pie frozen dinner (a) original label and (b) new label (Retrieved from “FDA, 2022 daily value on the new nutrition and supplement facts labels”7)

The current paper has been written as a short communication to highlight the current status of food labeling with the recent updates on the Nutrition Facts Label by FDA to be implemented by all manufactures and producers concerned with food products with prompt application on the front of pack (FOP) as recommended by official organizations without any limitations.

CONCLUSION

The current paper achieved its purpose successfully by presenting the updates of the nutrition facts label according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a clear, informative and concise way to be easy to understand by anyone and to be applied effectively to all food products with a sufficient comparison with the former original label in order to endorse the healthy eating behavior.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT

The aim of the current paper was to present the recent updates on Nutrition Facts Label by FDA in an informative and concise way to highlight the changes in structure of Nutrition Facts Label with the changes in the daily value of nutrients, where some of them increased and others decreased. Whereas, a third group remained unchanged with appearance of two new ingredients mentioned in the updated Nutrition Facts label by FDA 2022.

REFERENCES

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