The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has updated the nutrition labels you see on packaged foods to make them easier to understand and more helpful when making healthy choices. These changes are the first in over 20 years and aim to reflect updated scientific information, including the link between diet and chronic diseases like obesity and heart disease.
One major change you’ll notice is the larger, bolder type for serving sizes and calories. This makes it easier to see how many calories and nutrients you are consuming in one serving. The serving sizes themselves have also been updated to better reflect how much people typically eat and drink.
In addition to the changes in serving sizes and calories, the new labels now include added sugars. This is important because it differentiates between sugars that are naturally occurring (like those in fruits and dairy) and sugars that are added during processing. Too much added sugar in your diet can lead to health problems, so being able to identify it on the nutrition label is a great tool for making informed choices.
The % Daily Value section has also been updated to help you understand the nutrients in the food in the context of a daily diet. The goal is to make it easier for consumers to see if a food is high or low in a particular nutrient. For example, 5% DV or less is considered low for nutrients like fat, cholesterol, and sodium, while 20% DV or more is considered high for nutrients like fiber, vitamin D, and calcium.
Overall, the updated nutrition labels are designed to empower consumers to make healthier choices when shopping for food. By providing clear and easy-to-understand information, the FDA is helping people take control of their diets and improve their overall health.