First Lady Michelle Obama is marking the fourth anniversary of her Let’s Move! campaign by introducing a proposed change to the Nutrition Facts panel on food boxes that Americans have been used to looking at for 20 years. The new proposal would put more emphasis on the calories in the product, along with sugar and more accurate portion sizes.
The Food and Drug Administration proposal comes as there is growing concern over obesity in the U.S., which Obama’s campaign has targeted as well. USA Today notes that it would be the first major change to the labels since the 1990s.
There will be several major changes in the two proposals the FDA unveiled, but both stress the amount of calories per serving. The Washington Post notes that research has shown that tracking calories is more important than tracking fat content.
“Our guiding principle here is very simple,” Obama said in a statement. “That you as a parent and a consumer should be able to walk into your local grocery store, pick up an item off the shelf, and be able to tell whether it’s good for your family.”
In addition to putting the calorie counts in a larger font size, the amount of added sugar will be listed in one number. The “Calories from fat” will disappear, but “total fat,” “trans fat” and “saturated fat” will stay. Also, the serving sizes will change to better reflect how much people actually eat. (Some foods that are consumed by families at once, like soda, may have the contents of a whole package listed.)
Supporters of the plan say that it will save consumers from having to do math when calculating their calorie consumption. But despite the support, it could be years before all product in the U.S. carries the new labels. Food producers might even complain about the cost of switching over.
Meanwhile, Obama has also marked the anniversary of her campaign with a Wall Street Journal oped, in which she wrote about how companies have discovered that healthier products do sell well.
image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
