FDA Launches New Nutritional Label Education Campaign

In the last few years, the nutritional labels for foods have gone through major revisions. Proper nutrition is critically dependent on the consumer’s ability to understand the nutritional content of the food they consume. And it is even more important in times of limited mobility such as these days with the travel and movement restrictions due to the pandemic, when mood-eating and lack of exercise could have negative effects on the general health of the population. It is important that consumers be educated accurately about the nutritional content of the food they consume. This week, FDA launched its Nutritional Facts Label education campaign that contains several tools to educate consumers on how to read the new labels and the importance of each area of the label. The nutritional labels have become a very important not only for the selection of a given food by the consumers at the grocery stores, but by manufacturers claiming benefits of their products based on the content. The new nutritional label emphasizes the serving size and calorie content. It also updates the information printed on the package regarding the “Daily Value” and contribution of each nutrient content. FDA provides a lot of free resources to educate consumers about the nutritional label such as newsletters, informational videos and fact sheets, all directed mostly towards the consumers. These should be a good distraction in days filled with news about COVID-19 while at the time same educating one about information they would use all the time.