New food labels will be coming soon to the front of food packages in the United States, intended to provide a better warning to consumers by displaying measurements such as calories, saturated fat, sodium, and sugar. The food industry, however, is pushing to include two positive labels, or “nutrients to encourage,” such as fiber, potassium, or vitamin A, on the new labels.
According to The New York Times, Obama administration officials are concerned about the mixing of messages:
“’In the end, the label was going to be confusing, because those things would be included out of context, and it could make unhealthy foods appear like they had some redeeming quality,’ said an official who was not authorized to discuss the talks and spoke on condition of anonymity. For example, the official said, ‘ice cream would be deemed healthy because it would have calcium in it.”
The food industry claims to receive much of its initiative from first lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign. But, many people are seeing the industry’s efforts, including a $50 million advertising campaign in the fall, as a way to preempt the voluntary guidelines for front-of-package labeling that the FDA plans to release perhaps this year.
In other federal government news, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture have released their latest “Dietary Guidelines for Americans.” According to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack:
“The 2010 Dietary Guidelines are being released at a time when the majority of adults and one in three children is overweight or obese and this is a crisis that we can no longer ignore…The bottom line is that most Americans need to trim our waistlines to reduce the risk of developing diet-related chronic disease. Improving our eating habits is not only good for every individual and family, but also for our country.”
The guidelines include:
Some media reaction has characterized the new guidelines as nothing new, but many news outlets have lauded the first recommendation to “eat less” as a strong and positive departure from previous ones. The New York Times quoted Margo G. Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, as saying: “For them to have said ‘eat less’ is really new. Who would have thought? We should have been saying ‘eat less’ for a decade.”
The 2010 guidelines also place a strong emphasis on reducing salt intake, prompting the Salt Institute to argue that reducing salt would end up “worsening the obesity epidemic by driving people to eat more overall to satisfy their desire for salt,” according to the Washington Post. With such powerful lobbying, it’s no wonder the government words the guidelines so carefully.
But with publicity on food issues from the First Lady’s campaign, a new food labeling plan in the works, a stronger push to lower rates obesity as well as Wal Mart’s recently announced five-year plan to make thousands of its packaged foods healthier; the U.S. might make significant strides toward healthier (and most importantly, affordable) products from the food industry in the near future.
Posted by Rishi Sidhu.
