December 14, 2009
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the group that campaigned for the law requiring "Nutrition Facts" labels on packaged foods, thinks it's time for a change.
The group claims that while the labels have helped guide American consumers make smarter food choices, companies have come up with a number of schemes to trick consumers about what's in--or not in--packaged foods. Thus, CSPI is calling for makeovers of the Nutrition Facts panel and ingredient lists to last for another 15 years.
CSPI has long urged the use of symbols on the fronts of packages to give shoppers a quick snapshot of the key nutrients. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said it will conduct some preliminary tests to see which front-label system helps consumers the most.
Under FDA pressure, the packaged-food industry recently halted its own "Smart Choices" program, which allowed some junk foods like Froot Loops to use the program's logo.
CSPI also wants FDA to crack down on deceptive claims, such as foods that state they "strengthen your immune system," "help protect healthy joints," and so on. The group also wants stricter definitions of what constitutes "fiber" and "all natural."
The Center says companies shouldn't be able to brag about having "0 grams trans fat!" if the item contains significant amounts of saturated fat. And companies that boast that their foods are "made with whole grain" should be required to disclose how much of that grain is whole. It's often less than half, according to CSPI.
"So many packaged foods are little more than white flour, fat, sugar, salt and additives in various combinations, yet they are marketed as modern-day medical miracles, offering vague benefits for virtually every part of the body," said CSPI legal affairs director Bruce Silverglade. "The FDA has recently challenged some especially egregious health claims, such as the exaggerated cholesterol-reduction claims on Cheerios. But the agency should put a permanent stop to a wide range of other deceptive claims."
The Nutrition Facts label CSPI is proposing puts a greater emphasis on calories, and indicates when a food is high in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, or added sugars (sugars that do not occur naturally in fruit and milk). Only fiber from whole grains, beans, fruits, and vegetables, and not faux fibers such as polydextrose and maltodextrin, would be considered to be fiber on the nutrition label.
CSPI says it also wants ingredient lists presented as clearly as the Nutrition Facts panel is, as opposed to the condensed, all-caps type often used. The new Ingredient Facts panel also would separate the major ingredients from minor ones. And for foods with several forms of sugar scattered around the ingredients list, those sugars would be combined so that they would show up higher on the list of ingredients. Percentages of key ingredients would be disclosed.
"Food marketers bring their graphic design firepower to bear on the front of food packages, but then go to great lengths to make their ingredient lists almost indecipherable," said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. "The fine print shouldn't taketh what the big print giveth."
The American Heart Association has been in the forefront of the battle for more consumer-friendly nutrition labels.
"In early 2007 the American Heart Association publicly released a policy position statement supporting the establishment of a directed, standardized, comprehensive front-of-package food labeling program and icon system by the FDA with unified criteria based upon the best available science and consumer research, featuring consumer education as the ultimate goal," said CEO Nancy Brown.
"Nutrition symbols and other messaging on the front of food packaging can help consumers make informed choices about health and diet. But these health-related icons have proliferated in the marketplace over the last decade with numerous icon systems and more emerging, which can be confusing to consumers."
Brown says the American Heart Association applauds the efforts to move toward tougher regulatory action to make sure point-of-purchase labels are not false or misleading.
Messages left by ConsumerAffairs.com seeking comment from the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) were not returned
An illustration of the "before" and "after" Nutrition labels CSPI is proposing appears in the December issue of Nutrition Action.
