New VOLUNTARY food labeling may cause your favorite foods to look differently the next time you go to the store. The labeling is termed "front of package (FOP)" food labeling because the label will actually be on the front, while also being on the back like it is currently. The front labeling will show the number of calories and grams of saturated fat, sodium, and sugar in the product PER SERVING- not the total amount in the whole package. As always, it is important to read the serving size of the product (for example, a serving of milk is 1 cup) since that is the amount that the nutrition information is for.
The labeling is pictured here in the upper right corner
The downside:
Manufacturers can choose to include one or all four of the nutrients (calories, saturated fat, sodium, and sugar), as well as, other nutrients like B vitamins, vitamin C, etc. so they can use this to trick us. For example, if a chicken pot pie has 900 calories, 45g fat, 2050mg sodium, and 12g sugar, the manufacturer could choose to advertise the sugar on the front labeling and no other information. This makes it seem their product is low in sugar. The problem is that naturally, it is common sense to associate low sugar with healthy. What the new labeling will not show in the pot pie is the high fat, high calorie, and high sodium amounts. Luckily, those amounts
will still be found on the labels currently in place that are located on the back of the product. Reading the nutrition facts label on the
back of packages is still the best way to determine if a product can fit into a healthy lifestyle for you.
The new labeling can help us make quick decisions on the nutrition of products without the need to turn the product over and read the often confusing, lengthy label. When assessing a product, pay attention to the calories, saturated fat, total fat, sodium, sugar, and fiber. Some of these may be on the front label, while others will still be on the back.
The downside:
Manufacturers can choose to include one or all four of the nutrients (calories, saturated fat, sodium, and sugar), as well as, other nutrients like B vitamins, vitamin C, etc. so they can use this to trick us. For example, if a chicken pot pie has 900 calories, 45g fat, 2050mg sodium, and 12g sugar, the manufacturer could choose to advertise the sugar on the front labeling and no other information. This makes it seem their product is low in sugar. The problem is that naturally, it is common sense to associate low sugar with healthy. What the new labeling will not show in the pot pie is the high fat, high calorie, and high sodium amounts. Luckily, those amounts will still be found on the labels currently in place that are located on the back of the product. Reading the nutrition facts label on the back of packages is still the best way to determine if a product can fit into a healthy lifestyle for you.
The new labeling can help us make quick decisions on the nutrition of products without the need to turn the product over and read the often confusing, lengthy label. When assessing a product, pay attention to the calories, saturated fat, total fat, sodium, sugar, and fiber. Some of these may be on the front label, while others will still be on the back.