SILVER SPRING, MD — In efforts to provide additional nutrition information to consumers, the US FDA has proposed a requirement for most packaged foods to include a front-of-package (FOP) nutrition label.
If confirmed, the proposed FOP nutrition label — also called the Nutrition Info box — would offer consumers key nutrition information at a glance on a product’s saturated fat, sodium and added sugars.
Additionally, food manufacturers would be required to add a FOP nutrition label to most packaged food products within a certain window of time. For businesses with $10 million or more in annual food sales, the compliance timeline is three years after the final rule’s effective date. Those under $10 million in annual food sales would have a deadline of four years.
“The science on saturated fat, sodium and added sugars is clear,” said Robert M. Califf, MD, FDA commissioner. “Nearly everyone knows or cares for someone with a chronic disease that is due, in part, to the food we eat. It is time we make it easier for consumers to glance, grab and go. Adding front-of-package nutrition labeling to most packaged foods would do that. We are fully committed to pulling all the levers available to the FDA to make nutrition information readily accessible as part of our efforts to promote public health.”
The prospective label provides information on those three nutrition factors in a simple layout denoting whether a product has low, medium or high levels of a specific nutrient, complementing the organization’s signature Nutrition Facts label.
The Nutrition Info box design was influenced by a body of research conducted by the FDA, which included a scientific literature review, consumer focus groups and a peer-reviewed experimental study. In an experimental study conducted in 2023 of nearly 10,000 US adults, three different FOP label types were tested to identify which encouraged faster, more accurate assessments of a product’s nutrition. The study determined that the black and white scheme with the Daily Value percentage performed best among consumers.
“Food should be a vehicle for wellness, not a contributor of chronic disease,” said Jim Jones, FDA deputy commissioner for human foods. “In addition to our goal of providing information to consumers, it’s possible we’ll see manufacturers reformulate products to be healthier in response to FOP nutrition labeling. Together, we hope the FDA’s efforts, alongside those of our federal partners, will start stemming the tide of the chronic disease crisis in our country.”
Recently, the FDA announced a revamp of the ‘healthy’ claim and to what it can be applied.
