U.S. regulator announces major update for food nutrition labels

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday announced a major update to th Nutrition Facts label on packaged foods in an effort to help American consumers make healthy food choices.

The new label included a new design to highlight calories and servings, as well as new serving sizes that more closely reflect the amounts of food that Americans currently eat, which the FDA said have changed since the last serving size requirements were published in 1993.

The update also included grams and a percent daily value for added sugars to be declared to help consumers know how much sugar has been added to the product.

"It is difficult to meet nutrient needs while staying within calorie limits if you consume more than 10 percent of your total daily calories from added sugars," the FDA wrote in a statement.

Since 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice, the 10 percent requirement means people should get no more than 200 calories from added sugar a day.

The revisions also required dual column labels to indicate both "per serving" and "per package" calorie and nutrition information for certain multi-serving food products that could be consumed in one sitting or multiple sittings.

"With dual-column labels available, people will be able to easily understand how many calories and nutrients they are getting if they eat or drink the entire package/unit at one time," the U.S. regulator said.

Other changes included a requirement for products between one and two servings, such as a 20-ounce soda, to be labeled as one serving since it's typically consumed in one sitting, updated daily values for nutrients like sodium, dietary fiber and vitamin D, and a declaration of Vitamin D and potassium that will include the actual gram amount, in addition to the percent daily value.

Vitamins A and C will no longer be required because deficiencies of these vitamins are rare, but these nutrients can be included on a voluntary basis.

In addition, "Calories from Fat" will be removed because research shows the type of fat is more important than the amount, but "Total Fat," "Saturated Fat," and "Trans Fat" will continue to be required.

"I am thrilled that the FDA has finalized a new and improved Nutrition Facts label that will be on food products nationwide," U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, who has actively pushed the Let's Move! initiative to fight childhood obesity, said in a statement.

"This is going to make a real difference in providing families across the country the information they need to make healthy choices."

Most food manufacturers will be required to use the new label by July 26, 2018 while those with less than 10 million U.S. dollars in annual food sales will have an additional year to comply with the new rules, the FDA said.

The new regulations apply to packaged foods except certain meat, poultry and processed egg products, which are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service. Endit