Earlier this year, a potential revolution in American nutrition occurred. The site was your local supermarket, as well as thousands of other supermarkets across the nation.
On the shelves of these stores, now gracing practically every can, bottle and package of food for sale, are bright, bold nutrition labels that represent a milestone in comparison shopping.
They're the result of new U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulations that have revolutionized the world of labels and diet claims, and brought about the most extensive changes in food-labeling history.
What do these changes mean to you, the consumer? How will they help you make smarter choices when planning meals and healthful snacks? How will new definitions for serving size, nutrient and health claims, for example, affect the way manufacturers list information?
To begin, let's take a look at what's listed on the new label.
Q: What do the new FDA regulations require?
A: Nutrition information on almost all foods. In the past, only about 60 percent of all packaged products (those with added nutrients or whose labels carried nutrition claims) carried nutrition labels. Now, nutrition information is required on all foods. The only exceptions are coffee, tea, herbs and foods packaged in minute quantities, such as candy.
* A new format for presenting this information. Listed, as in the past, are calories, fat, sodium, cholesterol, protein, calcium and iron. New information includes amounts of saturated fat, which has been closely linked to coronary artery disease, and dietary fiber, the lack of which has been linked to colon cancer and other gastrointestinal diseases.
The FDA also requires food manufacturers to list the percentage of the recommended daily intake these figures represent. This information is listed on the label as "% Daily Value." Consumers now have a frame of reference for how a particular food fits into the whole day's diet.
* Standard definitions for nutrient claims. The new regulations set forth strict guidelines for describing a food's nutrient content. This means that manufacturers must be specific, as well as adhere to standard definitions, when making nutrient claims. In the past, claims such as "low fat" and "high fiber" could be virtually meaningless, without industry-wide standards with which to substantiate those claims.
In addition, foods may have been touted as low in cholesterol, while being high in fat. In many products, the word "light" referred to color, weight or texture, yet consumers (supported by the manufacturers' silence) assumed "light" applied to calorie or fat content. Relatively meaningless claims were trumpeted, while negative health impacts were camouflaged.
* Acceptable scientific claims regarding the relationship between a nutrient or food and better health. The FDA permits statements concerning the following scientifically proven claims: calcium and osteoporosis; dietary fat and cancer; saturated fat and cholesterol or heart disease; dietary fiber and cancer; fiber-containing foods and heart disease; sodium and high blood pressure; fruits, vegetables and cancer; folic acid and neural-tube defects.
These claims are strictly limited by the FDA. "Helps prevent heart disease," for example, is a claim that can be made only for foods that are low in fat, saturated fat and cholesterol. In addition, words like "helps" and indefinite terms such as "may" or "might" are required by the FDA, because many questions still remain about apparent relationships between nutrients and health.
Q: What about nutritional information for other foods?
A: While fruits and vegetables are not regulated by the new FDA regulations, most stores now provide on-site nutrition labels for these products, either through charts or small signs next to each item. Nutritional information soon will be required for meat and poultry as well. This information also will be provided at the "point of purchase," with ground beef, for example, labeled with the percentage lean and percentage fat.
Dr. Matanoski is a physician and epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. She is founding director of its Institute for Women's Health Research and Policy.